Book Review | The Secret Life of Souls by Jack Ketchum, Lucky McKee

The Secret Life Souls is a thriller from Jack Ketchum and Lucky McKee.

At the heart of this psychological suspense novel is the haunting depiction of a family’s fall and the extraordinary gifted dog, Caity, who knows the truth. As the drama unfolds Caity evolves from protector to savior, from scapegoat to prop, and eventually, from avenger to survivor. She is an unselfish soul in a selfish world—and she is written with depth and grace by authors Ketchum and Mckee, who display a profound understanding of a dog’s complex emotions. With her telling instincts and her capacity for joy and transformative love, Caity joins the pantheon of great dogs in contemporary literature.

Eleven year old actress Delia Cross is beautiful, talented, charismatic. A true a star in the making. Her days are a blur of hard work on ­set, auditions and tutors. Her family—driven, pill­-popping stage mother Pat, wastrel dad Bart, and introverted twin brother Robbie—depends on her for their upscale lifestyle. Delia in turn depends on Caity, her beloved ginger Queensland Heeler—and loyal friend—for the calming private space they share. Delia is on the verge of a professional break through. But just as the contracts are about to be signed, there is a freak accident that puts Delia in the danger zone with only Caity to protect her.

The Secret Life of Souls is one of the books I've been wanting to go back and give a proper review. It was released during my complete internet hiatus (November was an ugly month), but I've also had a hard time writing a review for it. It's a pretty short book, and all the things I love about it are tied to events in the story that I don't want to give away. I will just have to gush about it on the whole.

First of all, this is obviously a dog book. When I heard Jack Ketchum wrote a book about a gifted dog, well, it's harder to want a book more than I wanted The Secret Life of Souls. There are not enough genre dogs in my life.

Even with my expectations set so high, I loved The Secret Life of Souls.

As an adult, I avoid a lot of dog books. You won't catch me going near books like Marley and Me or The Art of Racing in the Rain. My chest hurts just thinking about what may be inside of those pages. After being a die hard Dean Koontz fan, though, I long for dogs like The Secret Life of Souls' Caity. I knew I would be in great hands with Jack Ketchum. He did write Red after all - an entire book avenging the death of a dog.

I'm not trying to lull you into a false sense of security. The Secret Life of Souls is a gut wrenching read. It's a psychological thriller, and it will certainly make you uneasy, but it's a great book. And a great dog. Have I mentioned how much I love Caity?

I posted The Secret Life of Souls as one of my favorite books of 2016, but it may very well be my favorite book of last year.

8/10: Great Read

Review copy provided by publisher

Book Review | Frostblood by Elly Blake

Frostblood is a young adult fantasy from Elly Blake. It's the first book in the Frostblood Saga series.

Seventeen-year-old Ruby is a fireblood who must hide her powers of heat and flame from the cruel frostblood ruling class that wants to destroy all that are left of her kind. So when her mother is killed for protecting her and rebel frostbloods demand her help to kill their rampaging king, she agrees. But Ruby's powers are unpredictable, and she's not sure she's willing to let the rebels and an infuriating (yet irresistible) young man called Arcus use her as their weapon.

All she wants is revenge, but before they can take action, Ruby is captured and forced to take part in the king's tournaments that pit fireblood prisoners against frostblood champions. Now she has only one chance to destroy the maniacal ruler who has taken everything from her and from the icy young man she has come to love.

Fast-paced and compelling, Frostblood is the first in a page-turning new young adult three-book series about a world where flame and ice are mortal enemies—but together create a power that could change everything.

There are two things I noticed right away while reading Frostblood. One, it jumped straight into the action and two, the story was very typical for a YA fantasy. This was both good and bad throughout Frostblood.

On the plus side, I never lost interest in what I was reading. I enjoyed the writing, and I liked the characters. (Ruby's love interest was probably the only thing I found unique to Frostblood.) I loved that we were given a full story within Frostblood. I was so petrified by the end that I was approaching a cliffhanger, but all was well with the ending!

On the down side, there wasn't much there in terms of plot that I hadn't already read and experienced in other books. It was certainly well crafted and I enjoyed it, but I felt like I had already been there before.

I'm curious why it's firebloods and frostbloods. It couldn't have been firebloods and icebloods? (Too obvious?) Or frostbloods and emberbloods? I'd be pissed if I was a frostblood. This is ICE, bitches.

At the end of the day, I wasn't quite the target audience for Frostblood. I expected more fantasy and less romance which was entirely my fault. I enjoyed it, but I think readers interested in YA romance will probably enjoy it much more than I did. Even though part of me feels like this wasn't a good fit for me, the other part of me feels pretty sure I'll read book two.

6/10: Good Read

Review copy provided by publisher

Recent Updates and Currently Reading | January 14

Out of the blue my mom has decided to read all of the Harry Potter books. I'm super excited. I called her last night and asked her how she is pronouncing Hermione. It was hilarious. She's competitive so she wanted to keep trying to guess. (She's been saying "Hermy-on". I'm pretty sure when I first read them I was saying "Hermy-own".)

Posted Last Week

Last week I posted the following reviews:

• Book Review | Little Heaven by Nick Cutter
• Book Review | Siren Sisters by Dana Langer

I also posted my horror spotlight of all of the January 2017 New Horror Releases.

Books Read Last Week

Frostblood (Frostblood Saga #1) by Elly Blake

Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin

In The Dark and The Deep by Steve Vernon

Review Copies

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward - Sing, Unburied, Sing is on my list of books I most want to read this year. When I saw it pop up on Edelweiss, I had to grab it.

The Horror on the Links: The Complete Tales of Jules De Grandin, Volume One by Seabury Quinn - Jules De Grandin is a supernatural detective created by Seabury Quinn. Seabury Quinn's stories were popular in Weird Tales magazine alongside H. P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard. He wrote 93 stories featuring Jules De Grandin, and they are being collected together across five volumes in chronological order. This is volume one!

What about you? What are you reading this week? Be sure to let me know in the comments or leave me a link!

---

This post is being shared as part of Book Date's It's Monday! What Are You Reading?, Tynga's Reviews' Stacking the Shelves, and Caffeinated Book Reviewer's The Sunday Post.

January 2017 New Horror Releases | Horror Spotlight

Welcome to the first horror spotlight post of 2017. These are the horror novels I was able to find that are releasing in January 2017. The book cover image will take to the appropriate page on Goodreads.  If you know of any that I didn't include, let me know so I can add them to the list!

Are any of these books on your TBR pile? I've already tackled Little Heaven, but I'm hoping to read The Dead Seekers, The Last Harvest, and Fever Dream before the month is out.

Book Review | Siren Sisters by Dana Langer

Siren Sisters is a debut middle grade fantasy from Dana Langer.

A soon-to-be siren finds herself responsible for the lives of her sisters—and the fisherman they curse—in this haunting debut novel that Kirkus calls "an exciting fantasy with a heart-stopping ending by an author to watch."

Lolly Salt has three beautiful sisters. When they’re not in school or running their small town’s diner, they’re secretly luring ships to their doom from the cliffs of Starbridge Cove, Maine. With alluring voices that twelve-year-old Lolly has yet to grow into (not that she wants to anyway) the Salt sisters do the work mandated by the Sea Witch, a glamorously frightening figure determined to keep the girls under her control. With their mother dead after a terrible car crash, and their father drowning in grief, the sisters carry on with their lives and duties…until a local sea captain gets suspicious about the shipwrecks.

On the day before her birthday, Lolly watches in helpless horror as her sisters are lured themselves by curse-reversing fishermen—and suddenly it’s up to her and her best friend Jason to rescue the sirens of Starbridge Cove.

Why did I read Siren Sisters?

How could I resist a beautiful cover depicting middle grade girls luring fishermen to their deaths?!

The Strengths

This was a great read. Lolly wants to be normal (like any 12 year old wants to be), but she's turning into a siren. I remember what it was like to be 12. Siren Sisters resonated with me despite how far I am from being a siren (or a 12 year old).

It's wonderful to read about strong, loving, capable, supportive sisters. These are characters you want to spend time with.

The Weaknesses

Some of the things I really enjoyed in the beginning never reconnected or played out in the rest of the story. I really thought the parents and their singing careers (hello, siren daughters) and their odd behavior would tie in more than just explaining the obligatory dead/absentee parents. It felt like there was a lot of foreshadowing to things that never came to pass, too.

Would I recommend Siren Sisters to others?

Yes. If you are a fan of middle grade fantasy and this sounds like something you might enjoy, definitely give it a read.

7/10: Recommended Read

Review copy provided by publisher