December TBR

Well, it's that time of the month! Time to talk about all of the books on my TBR list. I'm hoping to get through all of these in this month, but we'll see. I'm not sure how many reviews I'll write this month either, since I wait until after a finish a book to decide if I'm going to review it. Some books I finish, and I don't really feel the need to write a full review. I'm getting off track. Here are the books I'm hoping to read in December, with one holdover from November.



Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert

Dune Messiah continues the story of Paul Atreides, better known--and feared--as the man christened Muad'Dib. As Emperor of the Known Universe, he possesses more power than a single man was ever meant to wield. Worshipped as a religious icon by the fanatical Fremens, Paul faces the enmity of the political houses he displaced when he assumed the throne--and a conspiracy conducted within his own sphere of influence.

And even as House Atreides begins to crumble around him from the machinations of his enemies, the true threat to Paul comes to his lover, Chani, and the unborn heir to his family's dynasty...

Genre: Fiction, Science Fiction



Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators by Ronan Farrow

In 2017, a routine network television investigation led Ronan Farrow to a story only whispered about: one of Hollywood's most powerful producers was a predator, protected by fear, wealth, and a conspiracy of silence. As Farrow drew closer to the truth, shadowy operatives, from high-priced lawyers to elite war-hardened spies, mounted a secret campaign of intimidation, threatening his career, following his every move, and weaponizing an account of abuse in his own family.

All the while, Farrow and his producer faced a degree of resistance they could not explain -- until now. And a trail of clues revealed corruption and cover-ups from Hollywood to Washington and beyond.

This is the untold story of the exotic tactics of surveillance and intimidation deployed by wealthy and connected men to threaten journalists, evade accountability, and silence victims of abuse. And it's the story of the women who risked everything to expose the truth and spark a global movement.

Both a spy thriller and a meticulous work of investigative journalism, Catch and Kill breaks devastating new stories about the rampant abuse of power and sheds far-reaching light on investigations that shook our culture.

Genre: Non-Fiction, True Crime



Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson

Lillian and Madison were unlikely roommates and yet inseparable friends at their elite boarding school. But then Lillian had to leave the school unexpectedly in the wake of a scandal and they’ve barely spoken since. Until now, when Lillian gets a letter from Madison pleading for her help.
Madison’s twin stepkids are moving in with her family and she wants Lillian to be their caretaker. However, there’s a catch: the twins spontaneously combust when they get agitated, flames igniting from their skin in a startling but beautiful way. Lillian is convinced Madison is pulling her leg, but it’s the truth. 

Thinking of her dead-end life at home, the life that has consistently disappointed her, Lillian figures she has nothing to lose. Over the course of one humid, demanding summer, Lillian and the twins learn to trust each other—and stay cool—while also staying out of the way of Madison’s buttoned-up politician husband. Surprised by her own ingenuity yet unused to the intense feelings of protectiveness she feels for them, Lillian ultimately begins to accept that she needs these strange children as much as they need her—urgently and fiercely. Couldn’t this be the start of the amazing life she’d always hoped for?

Genre: Fiction, Fantasy

 

The Savior's Champion by Jenna Moreci

Tobias Kaya doesn't care about The Savior. He doesn't care that She's the Ruler of the realm or that She purified the land, and he certainly doesn't care that She's of age to be married. But when competing for Her hand proves to be his last chance to save his family, he’s forced to make The Savior his priority.

Now Tobias is thrown into the Sovereign’s Tournament with nineteen other men, and each of them is fighting—and killing—for the chance to rule at The Savior's side. Instantly his world is plagued with violence, treachery, and manipulation, revealing the hidden ugliness of his proud realm. And when his circumstances seem especially dire, he stumbles into an unexpected romance, one that opens him up to unimaginable dangers and darkness.

Genre: Fiction, Dark Fantasy



Bone Quarry by K.D. McNiven

When the Oceanic Research Institute sends out a team of biologists to find out why there are dead fish washing ashore off the Brazilian coast, they never dreamed of what dangers awaited them. Dive leader, Megan Gerhart and her team discover what appears to be an underwater graveyard, heaped with bones…human bones!

When they call in paleontologist Rourke Wolf to investigate their chilling findings, the team is thrown into a spine-tingling adventure that could cost them their lives, both in and out of the water. Faced with death-defying odds, they must confront dinosaurs believed to be extinct for 8 million years … Does the team have the grit to escape this terrifying encounter alive, when the odds are not in their favor?

Genre: Fiction, Science Fiction


So, we've got a pretty even split here: two fantasy books, two science fiction and one non-fiction. The non-fiction book is the first one I've read in quite a while, but it has excellent reviews. In fact, most of the books on this list are highly recommended. I look forward to seeing if they live up to my expectations.

What's on your TBR?


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Dune

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Dune is a 1965 science fiction novel by Frank Herbert, published by Chilton Books. It shared the 1966 Hugo Award with Roger Zelazny’s The Immortal, and won the first Nebula Award for Best Novel. Dune is the first installment of the Dune saga and is the world’s best-selling science fiction novel. It can be purchased here from Bookshop.org or here from Amazon.

It isn’t just the best-selling sci-fi book of all time, its also one of the most influential. Even if you haven’t read Dune, you’ve encountered one media property or another that was inspired, at least partly, by the series. Herbert’s novels are as influential on science fiction as Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings series is on fantasy. Herbert wrote five sequels to Dune: Dune Messiah, Children of Dune, God Emperor of Dune, Heretics of Dune and Chapterhouse: Dune and a series of prequels and sequels have been released following his death. 

Dune tells the story of a young man named Paul Atreides, whose family is tasked with ruling the desert planet of Arrakis. While the planet is nearly inhospitable, it is the only place in the known universe where the drug mélange, also known as “the spice”, can be found. Melange is capable extending life and enhancing consciousness. (As an aside, in the original Star Wars trilogy, Han Solo is on the run from Jabba the Hutt for dumping a load of spice and many interpret this as being an homage to the spice from Dune.) The spice is the most valuable commodity in the universe, making control of the planet Arrakis a coveted and dangerous position. House Atreides is betrayed and attacked by their rivals, House Harkonnen, and the destruction of Paul’s family sends him into the desert where he joins one of the native tribes, known collectively as the Fremen and begin a campaign that could change the face of Arrakis and the universe as a whole. Ever present in Paul’s mind, and his mother Jessica’s, is the possibility that he could be destined for something even greater than he could’ve ever imagined.

Before I can discuss certain plot elements, there are a few aspects of the Dune universe that need to be explained. Dune takes place in a distant future where space travel is possible. The series is unique in that its what’s considered “soft sci-fi”, having very little technology. Taking place 10,000 years after humanity waged war against the “thinking machines”, aka computers and robots, that had enslaved them. As a result, there’s no artificial intelligence, no robots and the only technology that exists is very rudimentary such as the machines used to harvest spice. Instead of computers, humanity relies on people known as Mentats who are trained to be human thinking machines, basically human computers. As a result of the war against the thinking machines, the society is organized as a feudal empire with houses controlling planets as their fiefdoms. While there is an emperor, he doesn’t hold absolute power. One powerful group is the Spacing Guild, who hold a monopoly over space travel, given that they are the only beings able to “fold space” and thus make faster-than-light travel possible, in part due to the spice. Nothing in this universe moves without the Guild. Another important order in the Dune universe are the Bene Gesserit, a powerful order of women who’ve operated as a form of shadow government for years, leading humanity down a very specific path. Slowly building their own power and influence over the years through a breeding program with the powerful families in the universe, their goal is the creation of the Kwisatz Haderach, a male Bene Gesserit whose abilities can bridge space and time. The Bene Gesserit can tap into prophetic knowledge, but there are certain aspects of that knowledge that they can’t access but the Kwisatz Haderac can. To meet the needs of breeding program, the Bene Gesserit can control both when they get pregnant and what gender the child will be.  There’s a lot more minutia that I could get into, but this information should make it easier to understand the book and my review of Dune.

Dune takes place almost entirely on Arrakis, with only the very beginning taking place off of the desert planet, and a few scenes intermittently happening off-world as well to fill in on a few aspects of the plot that couldn’t be shown on Arrakis. These short, cut-away sections provide context that’s important for the novel’s climax and give a little more detail of how events on Arrakis are impacting the rest of the universe. One of the most interesting aspects of the story is Arrakis itself. As previously mentioned, Arrakis is a planet that’s basically one giant desert. There are settlements, but not many and the open desert is home to colossal sandworms that are at least a few hundred feet long. Arrakis is the most valuable planet in the empire because it’s the only place mélange, which is the most valuable commodity, can be found. On Arrakis, traces of the spice are in the air, in the food, and the vegetation and to the people there, it’s not nearly as valuable as water. It’s rather ironic that the spice is the most important thing in the universe to everyone except the people who live in the one place it can be found. Water and mélange are the two biggest symbols in Dune with the spice representing untapped human potential and water representing life and hope for a better future to the Fremen tribes. A major theme tying into both symbols mentioned above is the theme of power and control. The family that controls Arrakis controls spice production, which in turn controls the universe, and gives them power. This theme becomes more and more overt as the book continues until the climax becomes entirely about, on a surface level, how Paul’s power gives him control over the spice. Power gives control and with control comes power.

One of my favorite aspects of Dune is Paul’s character arc. His arc doesn’t end with this novel, instead continuing into Dune Messiah and Children of Dune, but he goes on quite the journey in this novel alone. He begins the novel as a fifteen year-old-boy who, after being told that his father will not live long on Arrakis, wants to do anything he can to stop it. By the end, he’s a leader among the Fremen and a force of change in the universe. A major aspect of this change is Paul’s destiny as the Kwisatz Haderach, and the fact that this prophesized figure wasn’t supposed to be born yet. Paul’s mother Jessica, a Bene Gesserit, was instructed to have a daughter, but chose to give birth to a son instead. This decision caused the Bene Gesserit’s “chosen one” to be born early and relatively outside of their control. Unlike most "chosen ones", Paul isn't in denial about being chosen, he knows he's the Kwisatz Haderach, he's never doubted it. He's just reluctant to take up the mantle. As if being the chosen one of the Bene Gesserit wasn’t enough, the Fremen also believe Paul is Lisan al-Gaib, who it is said will lead them to paradise. Unsurprisingly, fate is a central theme in the book, as the narrative style makes it clear that fate can’t be changed and the characters are powerless to change events, even if they have advanced knowledge of it. Dune is, in many ways, the story of Paul learning to stop rejecting his destiny and do, at least in some capacity, what he was destined to do. It’s also one of the best revenge stories of all time.

Not including Paul, there are a handful of important characters that I should mention. This series has more characters than I can count, but only a few are essential to the story of the first book. The first of which is Jessica, Paul’s mother. Her role at the beginning is confined simply by being his mother, and helping train him in the Bene Gesserit ways because she’s believed, or at least hoped, from the beginning that he was the Kwisatz Haderach. Once she and Paul escape into the desert, she takes on her own position within the Fremen that puts her at odds occasionally with her son. Paul wants to transform Arrakis, Jessica believes it needs to stay as is. Jessica is one of the biggest influences on Paul and in shaping the direction of the story. Baron Vladimir Harkonnen is the primary antagonist of this story. He’s the one who plots and executes the downfall of the Atreides, as part of bigger plans for the empire as a whole. While he isn’t featured prominently in the book as a whole, he’s responsible for the entire plot getting kicked off. It’s the Baron’s plans that lead to Paul and Jessica escaping into the desert and, in turn, Paul no longer resisting his destiny and leading the Fremen to victory over the tyranny they’ve been dealing with for centuries. He's also one of the most genuinely creepy and unsettling characters I've read in recent memory. There is nothing about him that isn't gross and disturbing. The planetologst Kynes, also known as Liet and Liet-Kynes, is a scientist who studies Arrakis and is secretly a Fremen. He wants to change Arrakis from a desert planet to a lush, green paradise, at nearly any cost. While Kynes may seem like a throwaway side character at first, his vision shapes Paul’s journey and the course of the novel. There are a number of other named characters that I liked, mostly among the Fremen, but the three mentioned above have the biggest impact on the plot.

Now, let’s discuss Herbert’s writing itself. Plot elements, character arcs and themes are important to any story, but the actual writing is just as significant to a book being good or bad. Herbert did an amazing job creating an entire universe in a book that’s less than 500 pages. Not every single thing was fully explained, but other books he released afterwards, and books released by his son, expand upon some of the unexplained aspects. Some aspects are given context later in the novel, when it makes more sense and less like what I call "exposition via dialogue". There are also appendices in Dune that fill in a little more detail. I also feel like “world-building” too easily turns into “explain every single detail” sometimes and if this happened in Dune, the story could never start. Knowing how the war against the thinking machines started and ended doesn’t really make Dune easier to understand.  Having knowledge of how the Spacing Guild started, or the Bene Gesserit or who discovered the spice doesn’t change this book’s story. There are also some terms that, while the reader might not get an exact explanation of what it means, you can fill in the blanks. Frank Herbert also managed to pack a lot of themes and motifs, some of which aren’t easy to quickly portray such as the impact of manipulating nature to suit your own ends, into this novel. The prose is spectacular and his vivid descriptions made me feel like I was on Arrakis in the desert or the hideouts of the Fremen. The sense of urgency and action in key scenes was prevalent and the tension in others was palpable. Another thing to point out is the use of foreshadowing. Paul begins the novel having prophetic dreams, which later come true, but it doesn’t just end with him. Little details and moments at the beginning of the book resurface or are referenced throughout and at the end. In fact, there’s a scene at the very beginning that foreshadows how at least one character dies by the end. Overall, very well-written and I can understand why this book is such an influence on science fiction as a whole.

While I enjoyed Dune, there are a few things about it that I didn’t like. Towards the middle, the story does drag a little bit. I feel that some of this is done to not rush straight to the ending while also giving some context to the Fremen society, which becomes important at the end, and in the sequels. I can understand the need for that, but there are some scenes that could be shortened, especially ones occurring between the duke’s death and Paul and Jessica joining the Fremen. Reading about them wandering the desert for several pages isn’t exactly exciting. Some sections of dialogue are also a bit clunky. The scenes and conversations do what they need to do, they further the plot along and relay the necessary information, but a few times I found myself thinking “no one talks like that”. The balance of “show vs. tell” when it comes to character motivations isn’t completely achieved here, and its obvious during a few scenes. Another, pettier, complaint that I have is that Dune does not have chapters, it has sections. There are three “books” within Dune, each containing one part of Paul’s journey, that range from 130 to 200 pages each, but instead of having chapters, one scene and another are separated by experts from in-universe historical texts that have been written after the conclusion of Dune. Some of the excerpts can be a little spoiler-y, but thankfully this was a reread for me, so my annoyance comes from the lack of chapters being more inconvenient than anything else.

Dune is a landmark novel in science fiction. It tells a very personal story inside of a tale with much bigger implications and stakes. It’s easy to see why so many books, films, television shows and games have made homage to it or borrowed certain aspects of it for their own stories. Unfortunately, given how much of a game-changer Dune was, it’s sometimes accused of copying material it inspired, which is a little annoying to me at least. Still, we wouldn’t have a lot of the sci-fi properties we do today without it. I can only think of one other modern writer who had close to the same impact on his genre as Herbert did on sci-fi, and that writer is, of course, J.R.R. Tolkien. I do need to give Herbert slightly more praise here though. Tolkien created a world; Herbert created a universe. Dune is an excellent novel, not a perfect one, but better than most. I’d recommend it to any science fiction fan that hasn’t read it, however few they may be. Most importantly, now that I’ve reread Dune and reviewed it, I can move on to Dune Messiah which I haven't read before, much to my father's chagrin.

Rating: 4.7 stars.

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The Body In Question

The Body In Question is a 2019 literary fiction novel by Jill Ciment. It was published in June 2019 by Pantheon. I read it as part of a book club, along with another book. The novel tells the story of two sequestered jurors engaging in an affair during a highly-publicized murder trial. Although they agree to keep their oaths as jurors not to discuss the trial, things become complicated once deliberations begin.

The two main characters are C-2, the woman Hannah, and F-17, the man Graham. Other characters include the other jurors, who are referred to be nicknames C-2 gives them, and C-2's husband. There isn't a lot that's shared about these characters at all. F-17 is an anatomy professor who falls in love with C-2 during their affair. C-2 is a married photographer whose much older husband is dying and she begins the affair mostly to get it out of her system before she becomes a widow. She tries to insist she has no attachment to F-17, much to the evidence otherwise. The other characters are entirely one-dimensional and serve a purpose to either make the pair suspicious that they've been discovered or provide filler. No one seemed to have any motivations or personality beyond surface-level traits. The characters are basically paper cut-outs with no personality. Call me crazy, but if I'm reading a book, I need to at least feel something for the characters within.

One thing I dislike most about the story is that the focus seems to be on the wrong thing. Yes, the blurb explains that the story is about the forbidden love affair between two jurors, but Ciment made a mistake in creating the story of the trial they're jurors for. Rather than the pair be jurors for just any highly-publicized murder trial, the crime in question involves the death of a child in a fire and if the defendant, the victim's older autistic sister, set the fire on purpose. This part of the story was meant to be just the simple backdrop, the plot device bringing the two characters together, but was actually the most intriguing part of the story.

The trial, in the few scenes where the trial is actually about the crime and not C-2 waxing about details that don't really matter or her lover, presents an interesting mystery. Was the defendants confession coerced? Did her twin force her to confess? Why would she kill her brother? The mystery, sadly, takes second place to two very boring characters having a affair and being paranoid about being caught. Then, it's time for the jury to deliberate and, shocker, the two lovers are on different sides. One is the hold-out preventing a unanimous decision from being reached which only annoyed me more. Eventually, a decision is reached and the trial ends. The defendant is found guilty. Shortly after the trial, someone leaks it to the press that C-2 and F-17 were having an affair. Now, I was expecting some kind of consequences for the secret being revealed. Maybe the defendant's lawyers get her a new trial citing that one influenced the other's decision. Maybe the two jurors are held in contempt for violating the court's orders regarding how sequestration works. None of that happens. C-2's husband feels understandably betrayed, F-17 seemingly faces no consequences and the other jurors get trashed in the media at first for the verdict and later for not speaking up.

While I didn't like the plot, I can't say that this book is all bad. From a technical writing perspective alone, the book isn't bad. The writer clearly has a lot of talent and based on the reviews for her other books, this one seems to be an outlier. It's also a very short book, which works in its favor. Coming in at under 200 pages, I wasn't completely outraged at how I felt about the story when it was over. If this book had been twice as long, but with the same outcome, I'd be a lot angrier about the time I had wasted.

I honestly thought this book was a waste of time. In literature, words such as "story arc" or "journey" or "growth" get thrown around a lot. The Body In Question has none of that. The conclusion isn't really a conclusion. Nothing happens. The story goes exactly nowhere. C-2 isn't different at the end of the book. F-17 isn't. None of the events that happen after the trial make any difference or sends any kind of message to the reader. The most that happens is the jurors doing a symbolic "revote" on the verdict, but that's it. I've read books with good endings, I've read books with bad endings, but this is the first time that I've encountered a book with a pointless ending. There wasn't enough substance in this novel to justify an ending of any kind. If there was more focus on the characters, and they had actual personality, I might feel differently, but the lack of anything sticking out to me makes me feel like this book was a complete waste of time. I wasn't given enough reason to care about the jurors, their affair or anything going on, which made this book completely unremarkable. I can imagine that, in a few years, someone might ask me if I've read this book, and because its so unremarkable and unmemorable, I'll say "no" because I'll have completely forgotten about it.

Rating: 1.3 stars

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Days of Rock & Roll

Days of Rock & Roll is a 2018 thriller novel by Kelly Holm.  It was published in July of 2018 by the author. I was provided with an advanced copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

The story follows a photopgrapher named Ariana who argees to photograph her ex-boyfriend Zak’s band while they’re on tour for a magazine. The pair had a bad break-up many years ago and Zak intends to use Ariana’s assignment as a chance to win her back. Ariana, despite their break-up, hasn’t gotten over Zak as much as she claims and just wants to get through the job as quickly as possible. Complicating both exes plans is the presence of a Hollywood starlet who has decided Zak is hers and a shady figure from Ariana’s past that’s not willing to let her go. When Ariana disappears, Zak does everything he can to find her.

First, let’s begin by discussing the characters in this story. Ariana is one of the point of view characters and one of the two main characters. Ariana is one of my favorite main characters in a while. She’s not a reader-insert type character, she’s her own person and is dripping with personality. Not only that, but she has her own goals, and her own agency, which characters in some stories like this tend to lack. When she finds herself in a dangerous situation, she doesn’t just let things happen to her, but at the same time, she’s smart about how she reacts to things. I was rooting for Ariana from beginning to end in this story. The other main character is, of course, Zak, the guitarist of the world-famous band Dark Horse and Ariana’s ex. I feel a little less favorably towards Zak than I do Ariana, which is mostly because of a few things he does early in the story. He clearly has his own plans, and demons and things going on, but I found myself getting annoyed with him in parts. Rick is Ariana’s boyfriend, who she breaks up with very early in the syory because she thinks he’s too clingy. I hate Rick. Every reader is supposed to hate Rick. At first, I thought he was just going to be an obsessive ex who causes some problems for Ariana because he’s mad they broke up, but it turns out to be that he’s part of some very dark things. Rick is, undoubtedly, the villain of this story. Jules is Ariana’s sister and manager. I expected her to be a side character at first, mostly existing for Ariana to talk about her conflicted feelings for Zak, and not much else. Then, Rick becomes very embittered by their break-up and Jules becomes one of the most important characters in the entire story. The last character to discuss is Josie Winters, the Hollywood starlet who’s decided she and Zak are going to be together, no matter what. She starts off as an annoyance, and continues to be an annoyance, up until the very end of the story where she goes completely off the rails. Like Rick, we as the readers are meant to dislike her. The story is, on its surface, about Zak trying to get Ariana back so any character that threatens the happy ending needs to come off as unlikeable.

The actual writing in Days of Rock & Roll is great. The author does a fantastic job of mixing telling information to the reader with properly displaying it. There’s enough detail being shared for the reader to get into the story and the setting without it being overkill. We know what all of the characters look like, and the places that they are, without it seeming like the author wanted to explain every single object in the room a character is in. There are a few minor mistakes, but nothing that made me want to stop reading. I’ll discuss the pacing in a little bit, but Holm did a fantastic job building tension in the right places. In the climax of the story, when Rick’s almost cornered and Ariana’s almost safe, I wasn’t completely sure if the plan to save her would actually work. I enjoy that in a story. Characters need to struggle, especially in the final confrontation. They need to fail, or get tricked, and here that’s what happened. It’s a very well written book from a character and emotional perspective, but has room for improvement where the plot is concerned.

The pacing of the novel is a little uneven, which in turn makes the plot a little hard to follow and jarring in some places. More than half of the book is about Ariana and Zak remembering the beginning of their relationship and what happened during their break-up, while they also go back and forth about what feelings they still have. A lot of these scenes have the awkward “I’m talking to my ex” feel that gets interrupted by one external factor or another, usually Josie showing up and insisting that she’s dating Zak. The Ariana-Zak drama is broken up by Josie plotting how to “make Zak hers” and Rick getting increasingly angry and frustrated about Ariana dumping him until he goes as far as to kidnap her sister to find out where she is. After he kidnaps Jules, he kidnaps Ariana and that’s the point where the story takes a very hard left turn that had me thinking “what am I reading?”. Rick, it turns out, is nowhere near the person who Ariana thought he was. She broke up with him because he was a little boring, and very clingy. After their break-up and he starts to spiral, it comes to light that he’s a very, very bad person and that he’s not going to stop until he gets what he wants and he doesn’t care who gets hurt or dies because of it. Until this happens, the main antagonist looks to be Josie, who absolutely will not leave Zak alone, and she’s then more or less sidelined until after Rick is dealt with.

I think the root of my criticism about Rick’s actions seeming to come out of nowhere is the lack of foreshadowing. During the first few scenes with him, he seems like just an angry ex-boyfriend. I expected him to chase after Ariana, possibly stalk her. Maybe he gets into a confrontation with Zak because he refuses to accept that they broke up. Then, he kidnaps Jules and it seems like he’s starting to unravel, and a little dangerous, but not a serious threat to Ariana. He then abducts her, and the reader learns his backstory, which is much darker than anyone expected. (I should mention that I can see some problematic elements in Rick’s backstory and motivations. I don’t believe in spoiling major plot points unnecessarily, so I won’t get to in depth, but Rick’s motives, philosophy and especially his behvaior once he thinks he’s “won” create a stereotypical, and damaging image of the culture he’s a part of.) The problem is that Rick, his skills, his connections, et cetera, seem to come out of nowhere. There’s no mention of a mysterious job early on that indicates there’s more to him than appears. Ariana never mentions finding anything off or strange about him. And outside of one character saying Ariana and Rick didn’t make sense as a couple, or a friend of hers saying she never really like him but couldn’t explain why, there’s no indication or foreshadowing that things with Rick are going to get as intense as they do. I don’t like major plot elements spelled out for me, but I also don’t like feeling that they come from absolutely nowhere.

As I mentioned earlier, Josie seems like she might be the main antagonist until Rick turns out to be a complete monster. Josie just seems to be conniving and manipulative. She wants to date Zak, not because she has real feelings for him but because she wants him to make her famous. Her logic is that, if she marries someone super famous, she’ll be super famous too. She doesn’t like Zak, but she loves what he could do for her. She’s even willing to commit fraud and blackmail in order to make him be with her. Her plan of course, makes no sense and blows up in her face, but it was strange to me how much emphasis was placed on her and her plans when they only seemed to have a secondary impact on the plot.

Now that I’ve discussed my biggest criticisms of the story, let me just touch on a few other things I want to mention. I said earlier that the pacing is a little weird, this is because there isn’t a clear divider between one POV and another if its not in between chapters. The same can be said for transitions between Ariana’s memories of her relationship with Zak and the present events. One paragraph, she’s in Berlin five years ago, and the next she’s getting off of the plane in Detroit in the present. Something as simple as a break in between paragraphs would’ve made the transition less jarring.

Days of Rock & Roll is a good book, but the last third or so of it doesn’t seem to fit with the rest. The main conflict sort of comes out of nowhere and it makes a book with very little tension up to that point suddenly become incredibly serious. I can’t decide if the author wanted to write an abduction story and framed the whole “exes reuniting” idea around it, or if she wanted to write about two exes reuniting and then found a way to include the kidnapping plot. In either case, it’s not well-executed, which is a shame because I liked the beginning of the story, and I like the actual kidnapping plot, but they didn’t really work together. I’d recommend this book to others, but not without warning other readers that the conflict seems to come out of nowhere.

Rating: 3.6 stars

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November TBR

Hello everybody!

I know that I'm a little late to be doing my monthly TBR, but in my defense, the first week of November was a little crazy. Could I have foreseen the craziness? Yes, but for some reason I didn't and I'm now dealing with the consequences. Anyway, let's just get straight into all of the books I plan to (hopefully) read this month.

The Books


Days of Rock and Roll by Kelly Holm

Ariana is a very talented photographer who agrees to photograph her ex-boyfriend Zak’s band, Dark Horses, for Sound Trip magazine. Zak is thrilled and plans to use the occasion to win her back. However, when Ariana arrives, she catches Zak in a very compromising situation with Hollywood starlet Josie Winters, who wants Zak for herself.

Before Zak can explain to Ariana that what saw was a complete misunderstanding, Ariana mysteriously disappears in the middle of the night, and Zak is filled with guilt and wonder. When he realizes that she has been kidnapped, he’ll stop at nothing to find her. Will Zak find Ariana before it’s too late? 




Beneath A Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan

Pino Lella wants nothing to do with the war or the Nazis. He’s a normal Italian teenager—obsessed with music, food, and girls—but his days of innocence are numbered. When his family home in Milan is destroyed by Allied bombs, Pino joins an underground railroad helping Jews escape over the Alps, and falls for Anna, a beautiful widow six years his senior.

In an attempt to protect him, Pino’s parents force him to enlist as a German soldier—a move they think will keep him out of combat. But after Pino is injured, he is recruited at the tender age of eighteen to become the personal driver for Adolf Hitler’s left hand in Italy, General Hans Leyers, one of the Third Reich’s most mysterious and powerful commanders.

Now, with the opportunity to spy for the Allies inside the German High Command, Pino endures the horrors of the war and the Nazi occupation by fighting in secret, his courage bolstered by his love for Anna and for the life he dreams they will one day share.



The Body In Question by Jill Climent

The place: central Florida. The situation: a sensational murder trial, set in a courthouse more Soviet than Le Corbusier; a rich, white teenage girl—a twin—on trial for murdering her toddler brother.

Two of the jurors: Hannah, a married fifty-two-year-old former Rolling Stone and Interview Magazine photographer of rock stars and socialites (she began to photograph animals when she realized she saw people “as a species”), and Graham, a forty-one-year-old anatomy professor. Both are sequestered (she, juror C-2; he, F-17) along with the other jurors at the Econo Lodge off I-75. As the shocking and numbing details of the crime are revealed during a string of days and courtroom hours, and the nights play out in a series of court-financed meals at Outback Steak House (the state isn’t paying for their drinks) and Red Lobster, Hannah and Graham fall into a furtive affair, keeping their oath as jurors never to discuss the trial. During deliberations the lovers learn that they are on opposing sides of the case. Suddenly they look at one another through an altogether different lens, as things become more complicated . . .

After the verdict, Hannah returns home to her much older husband, but the case ignites once again and Hannah’s “one last dalliance before she is too old” takes on profoundly personal and moral consequences as The Body in Question moves to its affecting, powerful, and surprising conclusion.




Dune by Frank Herbert

Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, heir to a noble family tasked with ruling an inhospitable world where the only thing of value is the "spice" melange, a drug capable of extending life and enhancing consciousness. Coveted across the known universe, melange is a prize worth killing for...

When House Atreides is betrayed, the destruction of Paul's family will set the boy on a journey toward a destiny greater than he could ever have imagined. And as he evolves into the mysterious man known as Muad'Dib, he will bring to fruition humankind's most ancient and unattainable dream.



Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert

Dune Messiah continues the story of Paul Atreides, better known--and feared--as the man christened Muad'Dib. As Emperor of the Known Universe, he possesses more power than a single man was ever meant to wield. Worshipped as a religious icon by the fanatical Fremens, Paul faces the enmity of the political houses he displaced when he assumed the throne--and a conspiracy conducted within his own sphere of influence.

And even as House Atreides begins to crumble around him from the machinations of his enemies, the true threat to Paul comes to his lover, Chani, and the unborn heir to his family's dynasty...



Of the five books I've mentioned, only one is a reread. I read Dune years ago and I've decided to reread it since there is a film adaptation coming out in 2020. Five books is more than I normally read in a month, but I decided to challenge myself. We'll see how it goes.

What's on your TBR?

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