Ricky Pine's Blog, page 108

Review: Changes

Changes by Jim Butcher
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

As the title implies, nothing is really the same again after this book. By far, Changes is Harry Dresden's most personal, most harrowing tale yet, and the story does not stop throwing out twist after twist after deadly twist, until the very last page.

And whoa. That ending. That, I still have a hard time seeing coming, even after reading this book a second time around. Seriously, I almost couldn't believe Butcher would actually go there.

Well, on...

Review: Vengeance Bound

Vengeance Bound by Justina Ireland
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

So, after speed-reading and loving Promise of Shadows, I really had to go back and take a stab at Justina Ireland's debut novel right away. This one didn't lend itself so well to a speed-read, but that's okay, because it was just the opposite of straightforward enough that speed-reading would not have helped me at all.

It's a pretty cool concept Ireland's got going on in this one - the main character being, as other reviews before mi...

Review: Promise of Shadows

Promise of Shadows by Justina Ireland
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"No chance for fate, it's unnatural selection
I WANT THE TRUTH!"
-Muse

I was gonna write some words on my own book today, but then I cracked open Promise of Shadows. Safe to say, my plans went out the window.

This is my first time reading a Justina Ireland book, and just like how I started off a few months back with the works of Elliot Wake, I decided to go with Ireland's second book first. Another plan that's gone out the window - t...

Review: Shadows of Stars

Shadows of Stars by Kimberly Vale
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"Why are we here? Because we're here.
Roll the bones, roll the bones.
Why does it happen? Because it happens.
Roll the bones..."
-Rush

My latest SwoonReads discovery (it's also available on Wattpad, friends!), Shadows of Stars is a pretty epic unofficially-published entry in the YA fantasy world, effortlessly combining high fantasy, urban fantasy, and dystopian into a thrilling, whirlwind adventure. Sure, it often plays out like a game of...

Review: Memorial Day

Memorial Day by Vince Flynn
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Another Mitch Rapp story, but again, it starts to feel like the series is suffering from "more of the same" syndrome. I mean, God only knows al-Qaeda isn't the only enemy out there, and yet it seems like that's all Rapp ever does in life, targeting Middle Eastern terrorists. At least this book has some pretty high stakes, and highlights the moral quandary Rapp finds himself stuck in re: torture. He wants to be efficient in getting answers,...

Review: The Girl from Everywhere

The Girl from Everywhere by Heidi Heilig
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I've seen a lot of comparisons between this book and Alexandra Bracken's Passenger. Heidi Heilig, however, offers a superior alternative in The Girl from Everywhere, which takes readers on a more entertaining, more intense adventure across the world and across time.

Particularly important in this book is its focus on 19th-century Hawaii, in a time when the islands were an independent kingdom. Unfortunately, this isn't somethin...

Review: The Circle

The Circle by Dave Eggers
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Opening this book for my Advanced Expository Writing class this fall, I thought it was going to be a pretty cool read. I mean, 1984 in the Silicon Valley, on a campus that's basically a mashup of Google and Facebook and Apple? What could go wrong?

A lot, as it turns out.

Eggers, from what I hear, is one of those writers who spends his time mostly doing "literary" things, usually grand visions of some personal significance to him, and some crea...

Review: Escape Clause

Escape Clause by John Sandford
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The second Sandford mystery of 2016 proves a little less topical and a little more out-there than Extreme Prey and its take on an attempted assassination of a Hillary Clinton analogue. It sounds interesting at first - the story begins with the theft of two endangered Amur tigers, whose body parts are prized in traditional Chinese medicine - and soon morphs into a page-turning, but very crowded, story jam-packed with crime families (one...

Review: Guilty Minds

Guilty Minds by Joseph Finder
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I really, seriously wish Joseph Finder would give us more Nick Heller books...although seeing his tendency to go several years between new entries in this series as opposed to churning out one new book each year like clockwork makes them pretty special in the world of thriller novels. Guilty Minds is no exception, with its fast-paced, topical-as-hell exploration of politics and scandal and corruption. It's a world Heller's pretty used to...

Review: Night School

Night School by Lee Child
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Here we have another Jack Reacher prequel novel, this one set in 1996, before the real world even had one Reacher book to enjoy. It's a pretty high-stakes international adventure, even if it's set in a relatively peaceful time, between the Cold War and the War on Terror. However, Night School still feels quite topical for today, twenty years after it takes place, with its primary issues being international espionage and terrorism, as well as...