(I received this book for free as part of Goodreads First Reads giveaways).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I think it’s clear that a lot of research went into this book and although I felt it could have been a bit longer, I did find this book quite easy and entertaining to read.

There were quite a lot of details in this book, though I struggled a bit to relate to any of the characters. I think having a bit more background would have made it easier for me to empathise with the characters.

Even despite that difficulty, I felt myself drawn into the book. From about the middle of the book to the end, I was eager to see what would happen and really pulled into the plot.

I can’t say I understood all of the technical details in this book, but I did appreciate that the author had done all of that research and clearly knew what he was talking about.

I was quite intrigued by Sentinel and I would have liked to know a bit more about his planet and people. I think there’s a lot more of this story that could be explored in the next book.

(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

Zombies are one of those things that are used quite a lot in fiction, whether horror or otherwise. (Teen paranormal romance is starting to use zombies, I’ve noticed…) Therefore, I imagine it’s probably very difficult to come up with a different, unique spin on the zombie genre.

I felt that this author did a good job of creating a new spin on the zombie genre. Instead of the zombies just coming out of nowhere, or reading their origin but not actually seeing it happen, it was good to see an explanation of the cause… plus, I felt that the origin of the zombies was quite an interesting one. I would have liked a few more details about it, though.

I actually quite liked Little Bear as a character at first. I empathised with both him and Summer Rain after the first scene of the story. Of course, I lost a lot of my sympathy for them as the story went on… but I appreciated the glimpses into their thoughts and feelings and how their minds worked.

I wasn’t really sure what to make of Charity. By the end of the book, I didn’t really like her… but then again, it wasn’t clear how much of her mind was the same and how much had changed.

I thought it was interesting that there were the two types of zombies; the ones who were more like animals and the ones who had a bit more intelligence. Again, that’s something I would have liked to learn a few more details about. There didn’t seem to be any reason as to why some of them remembered their history/personality and others didn’t.

At first, I did get a bit confused with the different characters, but eventually, I was able to relate to them. I liked Jasper quite a lot, but I was very surprised by the fact that Jeremiah grew in my estimation by the end of the book.

The book itself was really well-written and I could see a lot of the scenes happening in my mind. I would definitely be interested in reading the sequel to this book at some point in the future.

(I received this book for free as part of Goodreads First Reads giveaways).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I have some mixed feelings about this book. I felt that the blurb of this book sounded quite intriguing, but the execution wasn’t quite as good as it could have been.

It’s probably very difficult to write about the life of a murderer, whether real or fictional. A murderer isn’t the sort of character who can easily be made sympathetic. I felt the author didn’t really explore the motivations that might have driven Helene. I suppose it made sense, though, because she came across as very much a madwoman.

Some of the scenes in this book were quite intriguing, but there were others that I had some difficulty in following what was going on. I wasn’t sure, most of the time, why Helene would kill a certain amount of people, but leave others alive.

The book itself was easy to read and it was interesting to see the folk tales from where Helene grew up. She was thoroughly unlikable in this book and I was kind of relieved by the ending.

I don’t know if I would read any more books by this author in the future. It would have to depend on the subject matter and if the book was one that I thought I might be interested in.

(I received this book for free as part of Goodreads First Reads giveaways).

(This review may contain spoilers).

This is a book I have some quite mixed feelings about. The blurb on the back sounded really intriguing, but I felt that it wasn’t entirely accurate, because the book was very much more about the modern Richard and not so much about Richard the First.

There were some quite intriguing parts about this book, but I found the characters quite difficult to get behind. I think it was trying too hard to be a mixture of different genres; and, well, I didn’t really like Richard as a character.

I liked the storyline with Noor and I did feel that her reactions to certain things came across as really natural and realistic. I couldn’t believe in them being in love, though – there were hardly any scenes of them together before the engagement happened.

The historical pieces were fairly interesting, but I felt that they could have been worked a bit better… perhaps being written as a parallel storyline. There were some things that were attempted to be linked to modern-Richard’s storyline, but I think those failed for the most part.

I’m not sure if I’d read any more books by this author. It would have to depend on the book itself.

(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I remember having a conversation with someone about deja vu and the different theories about time that might link to why people have those kinds of feelings. One of those theories is that everything has already happened before and that time moves in a circle. I don’t personally subscribe to that theory, but this almost seems like a good representation of that theory.

Out of the two storylines, I found Dominic’s to be better written. I did spend a lot of the book assuming that I knew what was going on and there were a few surprises during the course of it.

It was interesting to see the parallels between Dominic’s and Nasty’s paths, but I felt that Dominic’s were much better described. Even the food he ate varied, whereas I read about Nasty having warm bread and an apple more times than I felt was really necessary.

The idea of Nasty going barefoot was quite an interesting one and I felt that the author did a really good job of showing that, although it was her nature, there were still some problems and a few times when her feet got hurt and even infected. I did, however, think that the barefoot thing was mentioned a few too many times.

I also thought it was interesting how the people Dominic and Nasty met interacted with them. The idea of the pilgrimage is quite a cool one. If I had the time/fitness level/money, it’s something I’m sure I would personally like to experience.

I didn’t think everything was explained to my satisfaction in this book and I’d be interested in a sequel that further explores this storyline. I’d probably check out other books by this author in the future.