Category Archives: books/book review

River of Teeth

Book Review of River of Teeth, by Sarah Gailey

I borrowed a copy of Sarah Gailey’s River of Teeth from my local library.

Description from Goodreads:
In the early 20th Century, the United States government concocted a plan to import hippopotamuses into the marshlands of Louisiana to be bred and slaughtered as an alternative meat source. This is true.

Other true things about hippos: they are savage, they are fast, and their jaws can snap a man in two.

This was a terrible plan.

Contained within this volume is an 1890s America that might have been: a bayou overrun by feral hippos and mercenary hippo wranglers from around the globe. It is the story of Winslow Houndstooth and his crew. It is the story of their fortunes. It is the story of his revenge.

Review:
Awesome cover and really interesting plot, with the hippos and all. I liked the alternative history and the characters. I liked the wildly diverse cast and the speech patterns. I thought the writing was clean and easy to read. But I also thought it was all just a little too vague. There were aspects of the plot skimmed over that left me uncertain how or why some things happened. The book is only 170 pages long. There was plenty of room to fill it out more. I’ll be happy to read the sequel though. Because for all its faults,it was just plain fun.

Book Review: Midnight Crossroad, by Charlaine Harris

midnight crossroad cover

Description from Goodreads:

Welcome to Midnight, Texas, a town with many boarded-up windows and few full-time inhabitants, located at the crossing of Witch Light Road and Davy Road. It’s a pretty standard dried-up western town.

There’s a pawnshop (someone lives in the basement and is seen only at night). There’s a diner (people who are just passing through tend not to linger). And there’s new resident Manfred Bernardo, who thinks he’s found the perfect place to work in private (and who has secrets of his own).

Stop at the one traffic light in town, and everything looks normal. Stay awhile, and learn the truth…

My Review:

Honestly, it wasn’t as good as I’d expected. If I didn’t know this woman has dozens of books to her name, if I hadn’t read almost all the Sookie Stackhouse novels and know she can write, I might call the writing in this book amateurish! In the beginning, I thought it was an effect, something she was putting on just for the prologue. But it just didn’t get much better. I liked the characters and all, but the writing just didn’t flow particularly well. Was there maybe not as much editing as in past books? I’m willing to give book 2 a chance, to see if it improves. But unless it gets better, I won’t be continuing the series.

Hereafter

Book Review of Hereafter, by Marian Snowe

I received a copy of Marian Snowe‘s Hereafter through AudioBookBoom.

Description from Goodreads:
Detective Samantha Easton has always thought of herself as an adaptable person. But when she nearly dies after being shot on the job, Sam discovers something totally at odds with her rational, analytical personality: she can now see the spirits of people who have died, and she’s not finding it easy to adapt. 

As if the sudden appearance of ghosts on the streets of Boston and her dead great-grandmother’s curious questions about her love life aren’t enough, Sam is being haunted by a mystery woman. This beautiful ghost, Mae, has no memories and is unable to move on from this life to whatever comes next—and she wants Sam to solve the mystery of her death. 

Sam readily accepts the case, happy to get back to doing what she does best. There’s only one problem: falling in love with Mae wasn’t part of Sam’s plan. 

As the two women unravel Mae’s secrets, they fall deeper in love with one another… But how can a ghost and a living person live happily ever after?

Review:
This was a pretty good f/f, ghost romance. It had a bit of a secondary mystery plot-line. I don’t feel it was solved adequately, so I’m not calling it a romantic mystery. I liked both Mae and Sam, and they were sweet together, even if the romance was a bit insta-love. I adored Sam’s investigative partner Patrick though.

The writing was pretty good, clean and easy to understand. Though the narrator, Lori Prince had a couple stylistic quirks that, over the course of the book, started to really irritate me. But they might not annoy other people. They really were about style, not quality.

[Mild spoiler] My biggest complaint here is that you never learn how or why any of it happened. There’s a connection to something from the past, but you never learn if there’s a reason for it. That whole aspect of the plot is never addressed and the book felt weaker for it. Without solving that particular mystery, the book was only left with the romance, which was fine, but why set up a mystery if you’re not going to solve it?