#BookReview Watcher in the Woods by Kelley Armstrong @KelleyArmstrong @StMartinsPress @MinotaurBooks @FreshFiction

Watcher in the Woods by Kelley Armstrong
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In #1 New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong's latest thriller, the town of Rockton—and her fans—are in for another hair-raising adventure.

The secret town of Rockton has seen some rocky times lately; understandable considering its mix of criminals and victims fleeing society for refuge within its Yukon borders. Casey Duncan, the town's only detective on a police force of three, has already faced murder, arson and falling in love in less than the year that she's lived there. Yet even she didn't think it would be possible for an outsider to find and cause trouble in the town she's come to call home.

When a US Marshal shows up in town demanding the release of one of the residents, Casey and her boyfriend, Sheriff Dalton, are skeptical. And yet only hours later, the marshal is shot dead and the only visible suspects are the townspeople and her estranged sister, in town for just the weekend. It's up to Casey to figure out who murdered the marshal, and why they would kill to keep him quiet.

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WATCHER IN THE WOODS is book four in Kelly Armstrong's Rockton series. I've read all the books and this is a series that I love and I hope that Armstrong will keep on writing several more books.

READ THE REST OF THE REVIEW OVER AT FRESH FICTION!

#BookReview This Fallen Prey by Kelley Armstrong @KelleyArmstrong @MinotaurBooks

This Fallen Prey by Kelley Armstrong
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When Casey Duncan first arrived at Rockton, the off-the-grid, isolated community built as a haven for people running from their pasts, she had no idea what to expect. There are no cell phones, no internet, no mail, and no way of getting in or out without the town council's approval. She certainly didn't expect to become the town homicide detective. But, the very last thing she expected was for the council to drop a dangerous criminal into their midst without a plan to keep him imprisoned. And she never thought that she'd have to be responsible for him. 

The longer Oliver Brady stays in town, the more people seem to die around him. When evidence begins piling up that someone inside Rockton is working as his accomplice, Casey races to figure out who exactly Brady is and what crimes he's truly responsible for committing.

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I'm lucky enough to have, WATCHERS IN THE WOODS, the latest book in the Rockton series. However, I wanted to read THE FALLEN PRAY, the previous book released before I started it since it's the only one I hadn't read. So, I went for the audio version and it was a thrilling ride. I'm a big audiobook fan and Therese Plummer the narrator did an excellent job.

The Rockton series is fabulous, and THE FALLEN PRAY is one of the strongest books in the series. Casey Duncan and her law enforce colleagues get caught between a rock and a hard place when dangerous criminal Oliver Brady is dropped in Rockton and they are now responsible to keep him safe. Which is hard since the general population in Rockton, the off-the-grid community is, of course, curious to know who he is and what he has done...

I really liked this book and I'm now really eager to read the next book in the series. I recommend this series if you want a slightly different kind of thriller series. Rockton is a town with a lot of secrets and dangerous people. And, Casey's skill as a homicide detective is much needed...

#BookReview Rough Justice by Kelley Armstrong @KelleyArmstrong @subpress @FreshFiction

Rough Justice by Kelley Armstrong
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Mallt-y-Nos. Matilda of the Hunt. The lone woman who rides with the Wild Hunt, tasked with finding killers who've escaped justice and letting the hounds reap their souls. For Olivia Taylor-Jones, Matilda isn't just a legendary figure from Welsh lore. She is Olivia's past, and her future, one she's finally embraced.

Having accepted her role as Matilda, Olivia must now lead her first Hunt. Seems simple enough. But when she questions their target's guilt, the Hunt is halted, her mission failed. Still, it's just a matter of getting Gabriel's help and investigating the man's past to reassure herself that he's guilty. He must be. Otherwise, he wouldn't be a target. But the deeper she digs, the more problems she finds, until she must question everything she knows about the Hunt and the choice she's made.

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I was surprised and delighted to see ROUGH JUSTICE, a new novella in the Cainsville series, which I thought had ended with Rituals. Getting a new, although short, story about Olivia Taylor-Jones and Gabriel is a dream come true because I have truly enjoyed all of the books in this series.

READ THE REST OF THE REVIEW OVER AT FRESH FICTION!

#BookReview Indigo by Charlaine Harris @FreshFiction #FFreview @StMartinsPress

Indigo by Charlaine Harris
My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

Investigative reporter Nora Hesper spends her nights cloaked in shadows. As Indigo, she's become an urban myth, a brutal vigilante who can forge darkness into weapons and travel across the city by slipping from one patch of shadow to another. Her primary focus both as Nora and as Indigo has become a murderous criminal cult called the Children of Phonos. Children are being murdered in New York, and Nora is determined to make it stop, even if that means Indigo must eliminate every member. But in the aftermath of a bloody battle, a dying cultist makes claims that cause Indigo to question her own origin and memories.

Nora's parents were killed when she was nineteen years old. She took the life insurance money and went off to explore the world, leading to her becoming a student of meditation and strange magic in a mountaintop monastery in Nepal...a history that many would realize sounds suspiciously like the origins of several comic book characters. As Nora starts to pick apart her memory, it begins to unravel. Her parents are dead, but the rest is a series of lies. Where did she get the power inside her?

In a brilliant collaboration by New York Times and critically acclaimed coauthors Charlaine Harris, Christopher Golden, Kelley Armstrong, Jonathan Maberry, Kat Richardson, Seanan McGuire, Tim Lebbon, Cherie Priest, James Moore, and Mark Morris join forces to bring you a crime-solving novel like you've never read before.

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INDIGO is a book about reporter Nora Hester who has a secret identity as Indigo. Indigo is a vigilante that uses shadows to travel and fight evil by making weapons out of shadows. She primarily fights the members of Children of Phonos. When children are being killed in New York, Nora is sure that the cult is behind the killings and as Indigo she launches a brutal attack on them. But Nora is starting to fall apart, she isn't sure about her identity anymore. Are her memories really her own? Where did she get her powers from? She decided to try to figure out who she really is...

READ THE WHOLE REVIEW OVER AT FRESH FICTION!

#BookReview A Darkness Absolute by Kelley Armstrong (@KelleyArmstrong) @FreshFiction

A Darkness Absolute by Kelley Armstrong
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The follow-up to #1 NYT bestseller Kelley Armstrong’s acclaimed City of the Lost, Rockton town detective Casey Duncan makes a terrible—and dangerous—discovery in the woods outside of town.

When experienced homicide detective Casey Duncan first moved to the secret town of Rockton, she expected a safe haven for people like her, people running from their past misdeeds and past lives. She knew living in Rockton meant living off-the-grid completely: no cell phones, no Internet, no mail, very little electricity, and no way of getting in or out without the town council’s approval. What she didn’t expect is that Rockton comes with its own set of secrets and dangers.

Now, in A Darkness Absolute, Casey and her fellow Rockton sheriff’s deputy Will chase a cabin-fevered resident into the woods, where they are stranded in a blizzard. Taking shelter in a cave, they discover a former resident who’s been held captive for over a year. When the bodies of two other women turn up, Casey and her colleagues must find out if it’s an outsider behind the killings or if the answer is more complicated than that...before another victim goes missing.

Casey Duncan returns in another heart-racing thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong.

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Kelley Armstrong's CITY OF THE LOST was a book did not really live up to my expectations. I hoped for a more thrilling story. However, that didn't mean that I didn't like the book, but after waiting a year to read it and really looking forward to it, the book was a bit of a letdown. A decent thriller, just not so engrossing as I had expected it to be. Still, I wanted to read the follow-up, A DARKNESS ABSOLUTE since the idea of the book, of a town where you can hide away from your past, is such a marvellous thing.

READ THE REST OF THE REVIEW OVER AT FRESH FICTION!

#BookReview Visions by Kelley Armstrong (@KelleyArmstrong)

Visions by Kelley Armstrong
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Omens, the first installment in Kelley Armstrong’s exciting new series, introduced Olivia Taylor-Jones, daughter of notorious serial killers, and Gabriel Walsh, the self-serving, morally ambiguous lawyer who became her unlikely ally. Together, they chased down a devious killer and partially cleared her parents of their horrifying crimes.

Their success, however, is short-lived. While Olivia takes refuge in the old, secluded town of Cainsville, Gabriel’s past mistakes have come to light, creating a rift between the pair just when she needs his help the most.

Olivia finds a dead woman in her car, dressed to look like her, but the body vanishes before anyone else sees it. Olivia’s convinced it’s another omen, a sign of impending danger. But then she learns that a troubled young woman went missing just days ago—the same woman Olivia found dead in her car. Someone has gone to great lengths to kill and leave this young woman as a warning. But why? And what role has her new home played in this disturbing murder?

Olivia’s effort to uncover the truth places her in the crosshairs of old and powerful forces, forces that have their own agenda, and closely guarded secrets they don’t want revealed.

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The Cainsville series has become a favorite of mine after I read a short novella and the first book in the series. I finished this book a while back, and I have book 3 and 4 waiting to be read. This is a great series, perfect if you like urban fantasy. Now, this is a series that probably is best read in order. I've read two novellas that contained spoilers, but I'm used to reading books out of order.

Visions story continues after the story in Omens. Olivia may have made some success in her parents' murder cases, but she has still a lot to do to clear them. If, of course, they now are really innocent. However, with the dead woman found in her car that looks just like here does she realize that danger is not over for her. Thankfully she has the mysterious Gabriel by her side. Now, she just has the figure out who killed the woman and why?

In Omen's did we get an introduction to Olivia, Gabriel and the rest of the characters. We also got an introduction to Cainsville, this little picturesque town that seems to hide some secrets. I have come to like both Olivia and Gabriel very much and I intrigued by the little town. In Visions, we get to know more about  Cainsville and the people that live there. Let's just say that it's not a normal little town. I'm looking forward to reading the next book to learn more. 

As for the killing of the woman, is that just the start. It seems that some women are being targeted, but why? And, is Olivia in danger? And, can the omens she sees save her life? It's a fast read book, with a thrilling story and I'm looking forward to reading the next book!

#Wishlist June: Most Wanted 2017

I was browsing Goodreads trying to come up with a good theme for this month's wishlist when I strumbled over my list of books published this year. Books that I really, really want. So, here are 5 books I hope to get a chance to read (soon)! It's a mix of genres, and several are part of a series. Well, all, but one...;)

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The fifth book and the exciting conclusion to bestselling author Kelley Armstrong's "impossible-to-put-down" Cainsville series, in which she mixes hard-hitting crime writing with phenomenal world-building to create a brand of fiction all her own.

When Olivia Taylor-Jones found out she was not actually the adopted child of a privileged Chicago family but of a notorious pair of convicted serial killers, her life exploded. Running from the fall-out, she found a refuge in the secluded but oddly welcoming town of Cainsville, Illinois, but she couldn't resist trying to dig out the truth about her birth parents' crimes. She began working with Gabriel Walsh, a fiendishly successful criminal lawyer who also had links to the town; their investigation soon revealed Celtic mysteries at work in Cainsville, and also entangled Olivia in a tense love triangle with the calculating Gabriel and her charming biker boyfriend, Ricky. Worse, troubling visions revealed to Olivia that the three of them were reenacting an ancient drama pitting the elders of Cainsville against the mysterious Huntsmen with Olivia as the prize.

In the series' fifth and final novel, not only does Gabriel's drug addict mother, who he thought was dead, make a surprise reappearance, but Kelley Armstrong delivers a final scary and surprising knock-out twist. It turns out a third supernatural force has been at work all along, a dark and malevolent entity that has had its eye on Olivia since she was a baby and wants to win at any cost.

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author comes a new explosive thriller.

Mind Game takes Jane MacGuire back to Scotland where she continues her search for the treasure she’s been chasing for years. But now she’s being plagued by dreams of a girl in danger. Who is this girl, and what is she trying to tell Jane? And will Jane figure it out before it’s too late—for her and the mysterious young woman? Things are further complicated when Seth Caleb comes back into Jane’s life. This time he’s the one in trouble, and Jane will find herself pulled unexpectedly into his world as she fights to save him.

With the adventure, intrigue, and explosive energy that Iris Johansen fans love, Mind Game is a high-octane thriller that readers won’t be able to put down.

The thirteenth novel in Craig Johnson's beloved New York Times bestselling Longmire series, the basis for the hit Netflix series Longmire

Sheriff Walt Longmire is enjoying a celebratory beer after a weapons certification at the Wyoming Law Enforcement Academy when a younger sheriff confronts him with a photograph of twenty-five armed men standing in front of a Challenger steam locomotive. It takes him back to when, fresh from the battlefields of Vietnam, then-deputy Walt accompanied his mentor Lucian to the annual Wyoming Sheriff's Association junket held on the excursion train known as the Western Star, which ran the length of Wyoming from Cheyenne to Evanston and back. Armed with his trusty Colt .45 and a paperback of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express, the young Walt was ill-prepared for the machinations of twenty-four veteran sheriffs, let alone the cavalcade of curious characters that accompanied them.

The photograph--along with an upcoming parole hearing for one of the most dangerous men Walt has encountered in a lifetime of law enforcement--hurtles the sheriff into a head-on collision of past and present, placing him and everyone he cares about squarely on the tracks of runaway revenge.

The search for a kidnapped child leads a courageous railway cop down a twisted trail of murder.

It’s been five months since Special Agent Sydney Parnell survived a violent confrontation with a gang of brutal thugs, an encounter that left her physically and emotionally scarred. Deep down, Sydney fears she isn’t ready for another investigation. But when a woman is murdered on the train tracks and a child is kidnapped, she knows she’s the only one who can lead the hunt for the killer. While Denver police and the FBI chase down blind alleys, Sydney focuses on a single cryptic clue left behind at the crime scene—one that will send her down a path of greed, violence, and long-ago love.

With Denver beset by a series of monsoonlike thunderstorms that threaten to flood the city, Sydney and her K9 partner, Clyde, must wade through a murky trail of murder that stretches back thirty years—all to rescue a child…and catch a killer with a long memory and an insatiable appetite for destruction.

Just before dawn in the hills near the Scottish border, thirteen passengers on a hot-air balloon flight witness a brutal murder. Within the next hour, all but one of them will be dead.

Alone, scared and trusting no-one, she flees for her life, running to the one place she feels safe. But she's seen the killer's face, and he's seen hers - and he won't rest until he's eliminated the last witness to his crime . . .

That's it my friends! There are several more I want to read published this year. But 5 it is (this time!)

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Want to see more wishlist?

Check out these that my friends have posted:

Erin at Flashlight Commentary

Stephanie at Layered Pages

Heather at The Maiden's Court

Colleen at A Literary Vacation

Holly at 2 Kids and Tired

#BookReview Omens by Kelley Armstrong @KelleyArmstrong

Omens by Kelley Armstrong
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Twenty-four-year-old Olivia Taylor Jones has the perfect life. The only daughter of a wealthy, prominent Chicago family, she has an Ivy League education, pursues volunteerism and philanthropy, and is engaged to a handsome young tech firm CEO with political ambitions.

But Olivia’s world is shattered when she learns that she’s adopted. Her real parents? Todd and Pamela Larsen, notorious serial killers serving a life sentence. When the news brings a maelstrom of unwanted publicity to her adopted family and fiancé, Olivia decides to find out the truth about the Larsens.

Olivia ends up in the small town of Cainsville, Illinois, an old and cloistered community that takes a particular interest in both Olivia and her efforts to uncover her birth parents’ past.

Aided by her mother’s former lawyer, Gabriel Walsh, Olivia focuses on the Larsens’ last crime, the one her birth mother swears will prove their innocence. But as she and Gabriel start investigating the case, Olivia finds herself drawing on abilities that have remained hidden since her childhood, gifts that make her both a valuable addition to Cainsville and deeply vulnerable to unknown enemies. Because there are darker secrets behind her new home and powers lurking in the shadows that have their own plans for her.

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I read the novella Lost Souls a while back and loved it. Since I never read any of the Cainsville books before I Lost Souls was I eager to get my hands on the first book in the series (and the second and third). 

As a big fan of urban fantasy was I curious to see how this series would turn out. Luckily the first book is really good and it was great to get the backstory for the characters in Lost Souls.

Olivia has it all, that's until it's revealed that she was adopted as a child and that her real parents are serial killers. Now, her mother can't stand her, her fiance is (or mostly his mother) hesitant about marrying her and the press is after her. She needs a job and somewhere safe to go. And, through weird events does she learn of a town called Cainsville...

Omens is a great book. I love the mix of paranormal and crime and Olvia is a very likable character. Cainsville intrigues me, you can really feel that the town is hiding things. That it looks normal on the surface, but underneath ... well, there is definitely something weird with the town and the ones living there. Then, there is Gabriel. Olivia doesn't know what she will make of him, he used to be her real mother's lawyer, but now there is bad blood between them. Now he wants to help her, well for a price of course.

Omens is just the kind of book I love to read. I love weird little towns in the middle of nowhere and Cainsville is just the kind of town that I just know have a lot of secrets. The first book managed very well to introduce the characters. I'm curious to learn more about Olivia, her parents, Gabriel etc. If you like urban fantasy will you love this book!

#BookReview Missing by Kelley Armstrong

Missing by Kelley Armstrong
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The only thing Winter Crane likes about Reeve’s End is that soon she’ll leave it. Like her best friend did. Like her sister did. Like most of the teens born in town have done. There’s nothing for them there but abandoned mines and empty futures. They’re better off taking a chance elsewhere.

The only thing Winter will miss is the woods. Her only refuge. At least it was. Until the day she found Lennon left for dead, bleeding in a tree.

But now Lennon is gone too. And he has Winter questioning what she once thought was true. What if nobody left at all? What if they’re all missing?

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By no one else's fault than my own did I get the impression that this would be a paranormal book and that was what I was looking forward to reading. However, this is a YA thriller, a whodunit book about Winter, a young girl who discovers that the people that have left the little town of Reeve's End have perhaps met a grisly end. Among them is Winter's sister that left a year before and never was heard from again.

Young adult is not a genre I read that often, but I've lately been reading up on Kelley Armstrong and this book seemed interesting and it turned out to be quite a good book. For a YA is it actually really good. However, despite that Armstrong managed to create a really great female lead character and also write an interesting story, did I not completely fall for the story, especially not the ending. I don't know, it just didn't really intrigue me and I felt that the book lacked suspense.

Missing was an interesting book. I came to like Winter very much, she is a strong character and I loved how Winter, despite her upbringing has a goal in life. I also loved the little town of Reeve's End, there is just something special about town like this, far from civilization. The best part of the book was the beginning when everything was still a mystery and one wondered what was going on, what had happened with all the youngster? Personally, would I have loved a paranormal angle to the story, but it worked as a thriller, despite the lack of a truly suspenseful ending.

I want to thank the publisher for providing me with a free copy through NetGalley for an honest review!

#BookReview Lost Souls by Kelley Armstrong

Lost Souls by Kelley Armstrong
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The disappearing hitchhiker is one of the hoariest urban legends, and no one knows that better than Gabriel Walsh, a lawyer who grew up on folklore and myth. When author of books on the supernatural Patrick brings Gabriel a case of a hitchhiking woman in white who vanished on a country road after accepting a ride from a businessman, Gabriel knows the Cainsville elder is just trying to wheedle into his good graces. But Gabriel is a man in need of a mystery, one that will get him back into someone else’s good graces. His investigator, Olivia Taylor-Jones, has blown town supposedly on a simple vacation. But when she left there was a rift between them and…he misses her.

Gabriel is well aware the only thing Olivia loves more than a good mystery is a weird one, and this hitchhiker case more than fits the bill. As Gabriel digs into the story, he’s forced to face ghosts of his own and admit that the woman in white isn’t the only one who has lost her way.

With Lost Souls, New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong weaves an unmissable novella-length tale connected to her fan-favorite Cainsville series.

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I read my first book by Kelley Armstrong a couple of month's ago. The book was OK, not as fabulous as I had hoped it to be, but still enough interesting to make me want to read more from the author. And, this novella felt like a good second book to read. Now, I don't know anything about Cainsville, but this novella was very good and I hope to get a chance to read the books in the series someday.

Lost Souls starts with Gabriel getting a case from Patrick about a hitchhiking woman in white who vanished after getting a ride in the care of a businessman. It doesn't seem to be a very troublesome case, but it's just the case that Gabriel needs to lure Olivia back after they had an argument and she went on a holiday with her boyfriend. So, this case may be just the thing to smooth things over since he doesn't want to lose her as an employee and as a friend. But, there is something really weird going on and even Patrick starts to think that something is off with the case...

Now, I'm a newbie with this series, but I do love paranormal series and this urban legend case fascinated me. I also enjoyed discovering more about the characters and learning more about Cainsville. In short, I was hooked and after I finished this novella was all I could think of that I need to read this series and I'm actually right now thinking of buying the first book...

I want to thank the publisher for providing me with a free copy through NetGalley for an honest review!

#BookReview City of the Lost by Kelley Armstrong

City of the Lost by Kelley Armstrong
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Casey Duncan is a homicide detective with a secret: when she was in college, she killed a man. She was never caught, but he was the grandson of a mobster and she knows that someday this crime will catch up to her. Casey's best friend, Diana, is on the run from a violent, abusive ex-husband. When Diana's husband finds her, and Casey herself is attacked shortly after, Casey knows it's time for the two of them to disappear again.

Diana has heard of a town made for people like her, a town that takes in people on the run who want to shed their old lives. You must apply to live in Rockton and if you're accepted, it means walking away entirely from your old life, and living off the grid in the wilds of Canada: no cell phones, no Internet, no mail, no computers, very little electricity, and no way of getting in or out without the town council's approval. As a murderer, Casey isn't a good candidate, but she has something they want: She's a homicide detective, and Rockton has just had its first real murder. She and Diana are in. However, soon after arriving, Casey realizes that the identity of a murderer isn't the only secret Rockton is hiding—in fact, she starts to wonder if she and Diana might be in even more danger in Rockton than they were in their old lives.

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I was interested in reading the book from the first time I saw it. A town for people that needs to get away. A secret town in the middle of nowhere. It sounded bloody fantastic. But, sometimes my expectations are too high, and when it came to this book did I expect a more mysterious and darker story.

Now, I don't say that the City of the Lost is a bad book, it started off interestingly with Casey and her friend Diana needing to get away, especially Diana after she once again had problems with her ex-boyfriend who beat her badly. Casey's problem is a bit more complicated, she killed a man when she was in college and have since then been waiting for the day the past would catch up with her. And, now it seems that it has happened. For them is Rockton a perfect solution, although Casey because of her past has a hard time getting approved for going to the town, in the end, is she allowed, but there are some conditions for her and one of the reasons they agree to accept her is because they need a homicide detective to solve a murder.

It's in Rockton that I felt the story started to drag now and then, it just went on and on, sometimes it felt that the investigation didn't go anywhere. I was also a bit disappointed with the town, it felt that it was just really bad people there and if you were a woman then you had to watch out (I think I had a town like the one in Pines (Wayward Pines by Blake Crouch in mind, normal but mysterious). There were some promising things with the story, the rumors about cannibals were interesting, it just never becomes much more than a rumor. Then, the obvious and expected romance occurred (I have read reviews of the books so I was prepared), and it took more time away from the investigations, but at the same time was it an important part of the story that I can't discuss since it would spoiler the book.

The ending, well it was good, perhaps not fantastically good, but Casey did solve the murder and all. She also discovered some secrets that someone close to her had kept and I loved the confrontation between Casey and this person.

So, City of the Lost did not turn out to be this fantastic book I had hoped for. It was more of a bumpy ride with both ups and downs. Would I read the next book? Yes, I would! I did enjoy more of the book than I disliked. I just hope the next book will have a less bumpy ride.