Reading Fanatic Reviews
Romantic FantasyAugmented Mind by Alex Bates
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Augmented Mind*
Gets You Thinking about Artificial Intelligence… and Beyond
Like most of us in the modern world, I imagine, I am both intrigued and wary about the concept of artificial intelligence. So, when I found this book at a book review site that I use, I was curious, as the title seemed to suggest something more than straight-up artificial intelligence would be discussed. I am delighted to say that I was right. The book is written by an author who is a pioneer in artificial intelligence, and in this book, he offers a different and potentially heartening future of AI and IA. The book first details his own history with the concept, starting with finding an intriguing article on neural networks when he was a teenager to the sale of his AI firm and beyond. The first part of the book is a collection of his thoughts on why we need to see a broader role for both humans and machines in the future of AI, a future in which he sees as a hybrid of both that could allow for more than we can even envision today. The author decidedly does not want us to be wary of the future, and he thinks that intelligence augmentation is the path to that better future. He details the history of both artificial and human intelligence in a way that is both compelling and fascinating in what it could mean for the future both artificial and human intelligence. As one who is somewhat skeptical by Nature, I found myself drawn to his vision of the future. A cracking good read for anyone who is intrigued (or leery) about the future of AI… or who simply likes to future think.
The Library of Lost and Found by Phaedra Patrick
Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Kobo, Google Play, Angus & Robertson, and Indigo (Chapters)
The Library of Lost and Found*
Unlikely Protagonist Becomes Hero of Her Own Story
I am always drawn to a book about books! The cherry on top of that for this book is that the middle-aged main character works at her local library as well. The author does a brilliant job at the beginning of the book showing, not telling, of Martha’s fussy and pedantic yet selflessly giving nature. Martha lives on her own but fills her time doing thankless tasks for family and neighbors, like fixing her nephew’s trousers and repairing a paper mache dragon. Her insular world is broken apart when she receives a book left at the library’s door that was inscribed by her beloved grandmother who died when Martha was young. This opens up a whole new world for Martha as she tries to puzzle out the mystery of how her grandmother could have inscribed a note to her in the book months after the elder lady supposedly died.
This is the first time that I have read this author, and I was delighted by her in-depth characterization in this book. Martha at the beginning could very well have been a pitiable martyr, but the author managed to make her real in such a way that didn’t allow for such a simple take. The book does meander a bit, but I have found that to be quite often the case for certain British writers that I’ve read (and enjoyed, like the delightful cozy mystery writer V. S. Vale). While some may find this annoying, this author pursues this path deftly, in part because of the very excellent characterization of not only Martha but the secondary characters she meets along her path but also because of the depth of the backstory and its secrets that are slowly revealed. I quite enjoyed Martha’s transformation over the course of this book. A wonderful read.
Shattered Stars by Shari J. Ryan
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Shattered Stars*
Beautiful Tale of Love through Trials
Oh, my gosh! What a riveting, emotional story? This book goes back and forth between the past and present. While sometimes those kinds of books can be hard to follow or can lose momentum, I found that the story of Dani and Layne’s past to be vital to the understanding of their present and hopeful future. Dani has been through and is going through so much. The author pulled me right into the story, showing how what’s happening to Dani affects those around her, most notably her husband and teenage daughter. This book has incredible sadness and personal trials, yet it is also hopeful and inspiring. This is the first time that I have read this author, so I was pleasantly surprised to see how easily she drew me into the story and made me care about the characters and what happened to them. I love to be affected emotionally by a fiction story, and this one did that in spades. Layne is simply amazing, so compassionate, caring, and unwilling to give up on his love and their future. For Dani, it was so hard to see her struggle with memory and her hopelessness about it all at times. The book is beautifully written and thoroughly gripping. If you enjoy a love story that fully engages your emotions, this book may be right up your alley.
Never the Bridesmaid by Janell Michaels
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Never the Bridesmaid*
Complex Story Looks at More Than Just Romantic Love
This is not your garden-variety contemporary romance. It explores themes beyond those typical in romances like the intricacies of adult father-daughter and mother-daughter relationships. These are not handled in a simple, cliched, or humorous fashion (as they usually are when broached in a romance) but rather seriously. Angela, daughter of a wealthy man, is caught in a complex world. The book opens with her seeing evidence of her mother’s betrayal of her father with the pool boy. She doesn’t quite know what to do. She at first wants to tell her father but then is concerned about any ramifications for his health that such a shock might bring. The young man who broke her heart when they were teenagers visits her faith and is angling to get back in her life. The hero, Dan, is a young man from a very wealthy family that has a tradition that each heir must earn his trust fund by proving himself without the benefits that he grew up with. His father makes a deal with Angela’s father that Dan will become the handyman on his compound (fake name and slight disguise as a part of it). One of the problems is that Dan really doesn’t have a clue about how to be a handyman! Angela’s father also tasked him with reporting back to him about Angela and her potential love interests.
This book is at turns serious and quite funny. I especially loved Dan’s handyman’s notes that start each chapter that he narrates. His first attempts at being a handyman nearly made me laugh on occasion. Angela’s chapters begin with a letter to the wedding planning column that she writes, which can also be humorous as well. I loved Stacie’s snappy comebacks and observations. The book is more serious when looking at the relationships between the members of the Jackson family. The characters in this book felt three dimensional, and the dialogue seems realistic. I found this to be a delightful read.
Queen of the Warrior Bees by Jean Gill
Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Kobo, Google Play, Scribd, 24 Symbols, Mondadori, and Angus & Robertson
Queen of the Warrior Bees*
Little Honey (Mielitta) and Her Bees Against the World
What an unusual fantasy book! As the title might suggest, this book is about bees and so much more. Mielitta is an outcast in her city when the story begins. She was a foundling, not born in the Citadel like the others in her community. She is subject to bullying and ridicule. The Forest just beyond the Citadel is off limits and not even talked about (as it is forbidden to do so). One day when Mielitta flees the bullying, she goes out into the Forest. Her wonder is palpable as she explores this natural space. What a difference between where she has grown up and this place. While there, a cloud of bees surround her, stinging her. They actually essentially change her into a queen bee shifter with a hive mind. The bees that exist in her head continually talk to her. This metamorphosis has changed her in more than one way. With the strength of her bees within and outside her, she has courage and strength that she never had before. She actually does it shift into bee form, and she sets up the next generation of bees for her hive. This story isn’t just about Mielitta and her bees. There is greater political intrigue in the Citadel that Mielitta and her swarm get mixed up in, and several secrets come out in the end.
I thought the author did a fantastic job describing the settings, especially the Forest, and Mielitta’s thoughts and emotions. I love when thoughts would switch over to the hive mind; the bees were definitely a character unto themselves, which was an unexpected delight.
NOTE: Miel is the French word for honey, which is why I called her “Little Honey” in the title.
Prose and Poison by Jennie K. Brown
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Prose and Poison*
More General Mystery Than Cozy
This book is the cozy mystery debut of a writer who has written in different genres. Unfortunately, this mystery seems more like a general mystery than a cozy to me. To me, cozy mysteries must be filled with quirky characters in a zany small town. There’s at least one familial relationship that bolsters the protagonist in a way that is not typical of the family relationship; usually this is with an aunt or a grandmother. The protagonist is usually involved in one of the funky businesses in town. There may or may not be a pet. This book did have an amateur sleuth (and even a pet!), but the feel of the entire book was not like a cozy. It lacks the quirkiness factor. Yes, there were some funny-named businesses, but that was the extent of it. The secondary characters weren’t really quirky at all; they seem like ordinary people. I didn’t feel like there were enough progressive complications to keep the middle of the book interesting, especially considering that there wasn’t the quirkiness factor that normally keeps me engaged while reading a cozy.
The Un-Life of William Moore by Dana Lockhart
Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Kobo, Scribd, Smashwords, Mondadori, Angus & Robertson, and Indigo (Chapters)
The Un-Life of William Moore*
Undirected and Pointless
I am not sure quite what to make of this book. I’ll admit I don’t usually read vampire books, but the blurb had me intrigued that this would not be like others of the subgenre. I spent a couple of hours with it, and as I sit here now, I find myself wondering what the point of the book was. In the end, I am disappointed. I felt like not much happened for the first part of the book except for the gradual teasing out of information about what vampires mean in this world. And this information was given super slowly over many weeks as the heroine dragged the information from the vampire who visited her weekly for a meal. Then as other characters became involved in their existence, things starting to get mildly more interesting. But the author didn’t really set up the changes that came in the latter half the book in the first part of the book. Yes, the vampire did mention another vampire, but he didn’t give too much information about him. In the end, this book felt more like it was setting up a vampire world more than it was an actual vampire novel, a proper story. It is more about world-building than the story. I didn’t like the end. Not at all. It made me feel like I had wasted a couple of hours. There truly was no point.
The F Word by Michelle MacQueen and Ann Maree Craven
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Not with Kindle Unlimited
The F Word*
Brilliant YA Novel Explores Difficult Themes with Sensitivity and Honesty
I first passed this book by when I saw it at my favorite book review site, but I was intrigued by the combination of cover and title because the cover told me that the book couldn’t be about what the title suggested. I am so glad that I took a second look. This book is simply amazing and breathtaking in its honesty. As knowing but compassionate masters of words and emotions, the authors touch on so many difficult themes. What are some of these themes? As the “F” in the title stands for fat, one is body acceptance and the lengths that some will go to in order to avoid that shaming word. It touches on other kinds of self-acceptance as well, like accepting yourself and your new reality when a tragic event has altered you and your life. It looks at multiple aspects of peer pressure and bullying, dovetailing with the other themes in the book quite smoothly. We don’t know the full extent of everything that’s going on this book right away; everybody’s story and backstory unfurl slowly (again, masterfully done). This book definitely puts you through the emotional wringer, moving you from anger to sadness to hope.
Peyton is super smart, but she is also controlled by society’s view of what we should all look like as exemplified by the mean girls at her school. It was sad to watch her at first try to starve and exercise so she could lose weight, she hopes, before her former best friend (who admitted to a more romantic inclination just before the accident) returned to town for school. She pushes herself until she is on the verge of collapse, and still they kept shaming and bullying her. The authors describe Peyton’s eating and exercise habits in good detail; it is terrible to think that young girls do this to themselves. Believe me, I know. And once you start on that diet merry-go-round, it’s hard to get off; years and years can go by. A lot of what the authors stated about society’s views on fat people and fat women specifically was dead on. I love that Peyton was trying to gain a measure of control of this in at least one aspect, actually coding and creating a social media app that was meant to give those at her school a safe place to come to talk about bullying and other complicated issues.
Cam is a fantastic character as well. He is probably the one who was altered the most physically by the accident that happened 18 months ago. Unfortunately, it didn’t just break his body but also his soul. He struggles with guilt as well as acceptance for the new way his life has to be. His sections were so heartrending and poignant. I loved Nari, the truth teller!
I actually started reading YA novels in my early teens, back when the genre was just getting started in the late 1970s and early 1980s. I sometimes wonder, at my now advanced age, if I should still be reading these kinds of books. After all, there are just regular adult books that would seem to be more age appropriate for me. But books like this remind me why I occasionally still read YA. I think it has a freedom to explore universal themes in a way that regular adult genre books cannot (or at least can’t do without some difficulty in terms of audience acceptance or being thought as a “literary”—read, non-commercial—book). This beautifully written and heartfelt book exemplifies why I still do sometimes read YA.
Make Your Own Rainbow by Leonard Ryzman
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Make Your Own Rainbow*
Positivity Pop Psych
The subtitle of this book suggests the key to creating the life you want is to take charge of your emotions. But in reading this book, I found that the emphasis was more on thought than emotion, even though the author did write a full chapter looking into the dynamic use of emotions (though I don’t quite agree that that was really covered in the chapter). The author states at the beginning of the book that it will help you get past obstacles that stand between you and the life that you want to lead. The book is full of examples of people who have overcome sometimes rather difficult hurdles in life. I felt like the author took some broad concepts of this book from other people who have written books on self-help and positivity but added more (or different) anecdotes to support the ideas. I thought that the chapter on adding years to your life didn’t quite fit the overall theme of the book as the rest of the book is mentally, not physically, oriented. I will admit that chapter 4, when I saw its title in the table of contents, gave me pause for inclusion in such a book. I had to look at it right away, and it literally made me laugh out loud. You will find little new here, but different ways of looking at the same concepts impact people in different ways—so you may find that this book resonates with the way that you approach these ideas.
To Marry a Morgan by Cinnamon Worth
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Free with Kindle Unlimited
To Marry a Morgan*
Wrong-Headed, Right-Hearted Hero Nearly Bungles it All
What a wrong-headed hero! In this mixed-up tale of brothers and sisters, surviving brother Phillip means to make himself the brother of the woman he loves—whom he believes loved his now dead brother—by marrying her sister in order to make amends, as he believes that he is to blame for his brother’s death. Yes, that sentence could take a little to unpack! Phillip and Julia have loved each other their entire lives, but Phillip believes that she belongs to his deceased brother. So the best that he can do by her, while remaining true to his brother’s memory, is marry her sister. Unbeknownst to Phillip, he has it completely wrong. It is his beloved’s sister, Allison—the one he is going to pursue—who loved his brother and now blames Phillip for his death. How will this get untangled? Will Phillip realize what’s going on in the hearts of the sisters and be true to his own?
It was hard to believe that no one recognized Phillip at first; really, it was only five years, and adults’ looks don’t change THAT much. I felt the conversation and language in this book was a bit stilted at times. You can tell that the author is trying to sound like a more formal Regency book, but the effect fell a little short. I thought some paragraphs were a little too blocky and long. Given the rather complex plot, I thought the length of the story was too short for it fully to be explored. Other than these factors, I actually enjoyed this read, and I found both Julia and Phillip to be engaging and Allison to be rather annoying (in a fun way).
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