The Throne of Fire by Rick Riordan

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The Throne of Fire

Author: Rick Riordan
Series: The Kane Chronicles #2
Reviewer: Marlou

Summary

Ever since the gods of Ancient Egypt were unleashed in the modern world, Carter Kane and his sister Sadie have been in trouble. As descendants of the House of Life, the Kanes have some powers at their command, but the devious gods haven’t given them much time to master their skills at Brooklyn House, which has become a training ground for young magicians. 

And now their most threatening enemy yet – the chaos snake Apophis – is rising. If they don’t prevent him from breaking free in a few days’ time, the world will come to an end. In other words, it’s a typical week for the Kane family. 

To have any chance of battling the Forces of Chaos, the Kanes must revive the sun god Ra. But that would be a feat more powerful than any magician has ever accomplished. 

First they have to search the world for the three sections of the Book of Ra, then they have to learn how to chant its spells. Oh, and did we mention that no one knows where Ra is exactly? 

Narrated in two different wisecracking voices, featuring a large cast of new and unforgettable characters, and with adventures spanning the globe, this second installment in the Kane Chronicles is nothing short of a thrill ride. 

View this book on Goodreads.

Review

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

“Words are the source of all power. And names are more than just a collection of letters.”

Took me a while to finish this book. Not because I didn’t want to finish it, but simply because I was doing other things. I did want to finish this book. It was so good. A solid 4 stars from me.

I think I liked the first book a bit more than the second one. I did appreciate that it was quite different. I do not like the boy drama one bit. Sadie Kane is only 13 years old (yeah, I have to keep reminding myself of that) and she has a crush on two boys (she’s crushing hard) and, well, I think it’s unnecessary. One guy already brings enough trouble.

There was one funny part about boy drama that I quite enjoyed:
“I thought she’d make some comment about the bloodthirsty gods chasing us, but when she finally found her voice, she said, ‘That boy kissed you!’ Leave it to Liz to have her priorities straight.”

Also, Uncle Rick has managed once again to include his other series (Percy Jackson and the Olympians) by mentioning Blackjack, Percy’s black pegasus:
“I looked across the river to Manhattan. It was a great view. When Sadie and I had first arrived at Brooklyn House, Amos had told us that magicians tried to stay out of Manhattan. He said Manhattan had other problems–whatever that meant. And sometimes when I looked across the water, I could swear I was seeing things. Sadie laughed about it, but once I thought I saw a flying horse. Probably just the mansion’s magic barriers causing optical illusions, but still, it was weird.”

This book was a little more all over the place. I didn’t mind that most of the time, but sometimes it really bothered me. It was still an awesome book though.

I’m very excited to read the last book.

Sadie and Carter don’t you dare die. I’m sure Anubis wouldn’t like that one bit.

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The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan

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The Red Pyramid

Author: Rick Riordan
Series: The Kane Chronicles #1
Reviewer: Marlou

Summary

Since his mother’s death six years ago, Carter Kane has been living out of a suitcase, traveling the globe with his father, the brilliant Egyptologist, Dr. Julius Kane. But while Carter’s been homeschooled, his younger sister, Sadie, has been living with their grandparents in London. Sadie has just what Carter wants—school friends and a chance at a “normal” life. But Carter has just what Sadie longs for—time with their father. After six years of living apart, the siblings have almost nothing in common. Until now.

On Christmas Eve, Sadie and Carter are reunited when their father brings them to the British Museum, with a promise that he’s going to “make things right.” But all does not go according to plan: Carter and Sadie watch as Julius summons a mysterious figure, who quickly banishes their father and causes a fiery explosion.

Soon Carter and Sadie discover that the gods of Ancient Egypt are waking, and the worst of them—Set—has a frightening scheme. To save their father, they must embark on a dangerous journey—a quest that brings them ever closer to the truth about their family and its links to the House of Life, a secret order that has existed since the time of the pharaohs.

View this book on Goodreads

Review

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

“I guess it started in London, the night our dad blew up the British museum.”

I loved this book. Rick Riordan is my go-to author when I’m not sure what I want to read. I just know one of his books is going to get me out of my slump. It once again did.

The Red Pyramid is a little different from his other books (I won’t mention how exactly, you’ll have to find that out on your own).

Uncle Rick is the king when it comes to puns and silly jokes.
Exhibit A: “In person, if possible, Anubis was even more drop-dead gorgeous. [Oh . . . ha, ha. I didn’t catch the pun, but thank you, Carter. God of the dead, drop-dead gorgeous. Yes, hilarious. Now, may I continue?]”

He also mentions his other series (Percy Jackson and the Olympians) in this book.
Exhibit B: “Manhattan has other problems. Other gods. It’s best we stay separate.”

There are so many good parts in this book but if I had to choose just one it would be the part where they meet with Anubis. Rick was describing a graveyard in a city and I guessed it was New Orleans. I was right, it was New Orleans. I loved that part simply because I guessed it right. It showed that I’m a true fangirl who’s obsessed with the TV show The Originals.

All in all this book was lovely. I finished it in two days. It got me out of my reading slump. Thanks, Rick, for another amazing book!

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Radioactive Revolution by Richard Hummel

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Radioactive Revolution

Author: Richard Hummel
Reviewer: Inopinion

Summary

LitRPG, GameLit, RPGLit, GameFiction…. So many names for this genre!

Jared and his dragon companion, Scarlet, emerge from the depths of the earth bound together and with a mission to restore dragons back to the ecosystem and free humans from their captivity. They set out across the radioactive wasteland that stretches between the refugee camps and larger cities facing both small and enormous mutated critters collecting nanites and boosting their skills, strength, and size all along the way!

Can they gather the army they need to take on the corrupt human world? Can they wake the dragons and return them to their proper place on the surface of the Earth?

View this book on Goodreads

Review

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

I received a book in exchange for reading and reviewing. What follows is my honest assessment. I read approximately half of the book in print and the other half through my Kindle Unlimited subscription (great place to find many indie authors!).

I am new to this genre, and if you, like me, are participating in the Pop Sugar Challenge (download a PDF of this year’s list here), you know that LitRPG is an ‘extra’ category this year. So I was delighted when our blog was contacted for a review. So, bear-in-mind, this is my first foray into this type of book and so my review has no bearing on if this is an exemplary title for the genre or if it deviates from the typical. I’m just going to keep this to the story, the writing, and the potential for the series.

Here we go…

Appeal: This book would appeal to fantasy readers who enjoy dragons, but mostly, this book would appeal to those that love quests and a touch of dystopia. I was reading this book at the same time as Ink Mistress and found several parallels with the quest, boss-fight, quest, boss-fight formula (and that’s a good thing for me!). If you want to cover ground and see new things and skip the political maneuvering, this book will work for you.

Review:

This book has a strong opening that introduces the world, the characters, and the challenges in a post-apocalyptic New York. The introduction to the world and the ‘point system’ is gradually blended into Jared’s actions and overall both are well integrated into the story. So while the idea that Jared has nanites he can assign to different attributes was a little hokey for a first-time reader in this genre, it wasn’t jarring and so I was well adjusted to references to this system by the time Jared and Scarlet are really starting to level-up. 

The story has a strong premise. Jared makes a vow to assist Dragons to return to Earth and they uncover a long-standing conspiracy that makes humans dependent on Boosters. And thus, they also want to free humans. I really like the conversations between Scarlet and Jared as they navigate these two goals throughout the book. And I especially like the first half where they are truly working together and are equal participants in the book.

Starting around the 65% mark, I started to struggle with the pacing. I would liken the middle of this book to watching someone play a video game: mildly tedious. There’s still things going on, but the stakes are just not as high as they were before the major boss fight. Now, I believe this part of the story is going to be crucial to the overall series or I don’t think the author would have spent time on it, but honestly, I struggled to get through. At about 80%, the book picks right back up and Jared and Scarlet are off on another quest, another series of fights, and the opening to the next book is clearly laid out.

If it weren’t for that troublesome middle, I would be rating this book at 4 stars. Even with it, I’m eyeing that book 2 on Kindle Unlimited, and I don’t waste time on continuing bad series. So that’s a solid half-star-plus from me.

The Savior’s Champion by Jenna Moreci

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The Savior’s Champion

Author: Jenna Moreci
Reviewer: Leslie

Content Warnings

Graphic violence, gore, adult language, sexual situations

Summary

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.

View this book on Goodreads

Review

Rating: 2.5 stars out of 5

I was pretty interested and excited to read this book because it sounded like a Hunger Games meets The Selection story that I could get behind. Plus, I knew that the author was a pretty well-known Authortuber and has a ton of fans for her writing knowledge and advice. 

However, to say that I was disappointed is a slight understatement. Things in the story start off well enough, with the typical reluctant hero storyline, but there weren’t many other things that I was impressed by in the end. 

First, it was long. Really long. And then it ends incredibly abruptly. I definitely felt a little cheated because of that and may be (definitely) holding onto some resentments about investing the amount of time I did and NOT getting any real sort of resolution. 

Secondly, I’m not a prudish reader by any means and am all for the properly used adult language in whatever context, as long as it makes sense and is done for a purpose. However, this was not the case here. I literally searched the ebook for how many times the f-word, and a couple of c-words were used throughout the book and was not surprised that the totals were staggering. For example, the f-bomb is dropped 182 times and the word “cock” is used 96 times and by every single character (or so it seemed). Because of this, the characters lacked depth, they all sounded the same, and it seemed like a society who literally couldn’t be bothered to come up with words that were different or unique in any way, no matter what the character’s background or place in that society. This might seem nit picky, but for me, it definitely stood out and made things seem like a farcical telling of what a girl thinks boys sound like (similar to the girls have pillow fights at sleepovers type of stereotype).

Lastly, the plot was interesting enough that I wanted to see if the secret that was being kept was what I thought it was and I will hand it to Moreci about the challenges–they were interesting, even when they weren’t that exciting, but some of them were, and it allowed the book to have some high points. 

Overall, I assume that there will be a book two, but I won’t be picking it up. I think that sums up my thoughts succinctly enough. 

Queen of Air and Darkness by Cassandra Clare

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Queen of Air and Darkness

Author: Cassandra Clare
Series: The Dark Artifices #3
Reviewer: Leslie

Summary

What if damnation is the price of true love?

Innocent blood has been spilled on the steps of the Council Hall, the sacred stronghold of the Shadowhunters. In the wake of the tragic death of Livia Blackthorn, the Clave teeters on the brink of civil war. One fragment of the Blackthorn family flees to Los Angeles, seeking to discover the source of the disease that is destroying the race of warlocks. Meanwhile, Julian and Emma take desperate measures to put their forbidden love aside and undertake a perilous mission to Faerie to retrieve the Black Volume of the Dead. What they find in the Courts is a secret that may tear the Shadow World asunder and open a dark path into a future they could never have imagined. Caught in a race against time, Emma and Julian must save the world of Shadowhunters before the deadly power of the parabatai curse destroys them and everyone they love.

View this book on Goodreads.

Review

Rating: 3 stars out of 5

I put off reading this book for a while because I knew how the previous book, Lord of Shadows, ended and I knew I was in for some really deep emotions at the beginning of this one. Well, Clare delivered on that front and picks up right in the aftermath of book 2, making me relive the whole tragedy over again like I had just put down the previous book. 

Overall, I thought that this story fit with the rest of the trilogy, and even the Shadowhunter universe that Clare has developed through the various series, with lots of characters coming in from the previous stories. However, there was just a lot to be dealt with here. 

The story was really long. It honestly could have been two whole books and half way through I felt enough of a resolution that I wondered what else could be in store for them, but it seems that the trilogy model is something Clare wanted to stick with (or her publishers did), so the story plows on. 

Although previous books had me worried for Emma and Julian and the rest of their outfit, this book didn’t deliver as much on that front. I wasn’t really concerned about how things would turn out and about half way through the book, Clare makes a plot decision that I just couldn’t get behind. It opens way too many doors and options for the storyline and seemed too convenient to really fit the plot. Similarly, towards the end, with a big battle going on, something weird and extravagant happens because of Emma and Julian’s forbidden love, and the explanation and resolution left me again feeling like this had been contrived a little too heavily to make it feel believable and rewarding as a reader. 

In the end, Clare wraps things up (maybe a little too neatly for these characters) while still leaving gaping holes in the world open for what I must assume is going to be her next trilogy.

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Aurora Rising by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman

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Aurora Rising

Author: Jay Kristoff, Amie Kaufman
Series: Aurora Rising #1
Reviewer: Marlou

Summary

The year is 2380, and the graduating cadets of Aurora Academy are being assigned their first missions. Star pupil Tyler Jones is ready to recruit the squad of his dreams, but his own boneheaded heroism sees him stuck with the dregs nobody else in the Academy would touch…

  • A cocky diplomat with a black belt in sarcasm
  • A sociopath scientist with a fondness for shooting her bunkmates
  • A smart-ass techwiz with the galaxy’s biggest chip on his shoulder
  • An alien warrior with anger management issues
  • A tomboy pilot who’s totally not into him, in case you were wondering

And Ty’s squad isn’t even his biggest problem—that’d be Aurora Jie-Lin O’Malley, the girl he’s just rescued from interdimensional space. Trapped in cryo-sleep for two centuries, Auri is a girl out of time and out of her depth. But she could be the catalyst that starts a war millions of years in the making, and Tyler’s squad of losers, discipline-cases and misfits might just be the last hope for the entire galaxy.

They’re not the heroes we deserve. They’re just the ones we could find. Nobody panic.

View this book on Goodreads.

Review

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

HOLY MOLY I HAVE NO WORDS

I’ll try to put my thoughts into words without writing asdfghjkl…

Story: it’s interesting enough. Lots of little pieces of info given, but nothing major revealed until the very end. It’s a solid scifi story but not necessarily anything majorly impressive.

Multiple POV: I thought this was going to bother me, but it didn’t. It was very clear in whose POV you were reading even if you forgot to look at the big ass name above the beginning of the chapter.

Characters: OMG everyone is so fun to read about. Banter is amazing, sass activated, sarcasm is definitely Kristoff-worthy and they all started caring about each other in the end. LOVE IT. I do just generally love a good story about misfits.

Why 4 stars? I didn’t LOVE this book. The story is interesting and I want to know more. The ending has left me in a state of utter despair. BUT I feel like there’s too much info left out. The romance between Kal and Aurora is okay, but I find it unnecessary. There was just a lot of build up and then it didn’t feel like a OH WOW SHIT OKAY SO THAT’S WHAT’S BEEN GOING ON… It was more a Oh is that it? I was expecting something grander.

Turns out I have plenty of words for ya 😂 I definitely recommend this book, but maybe read it when you have the whole series in hand. I’m not okay with waiting Maker knows how long for the next book. I’m so curious about what they’re gonna do with the story.

Solid 4 stars for the squad full of misfits and a book filled with sarcasm and banter.

Swap’d by Tamara Ireland Stone

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Swap’d

Author: Tamara Ireland Stone
Series: CodeGirls#2
Reviewer: Renee

Summary

After her Click’d catastrophe, Allie Navarro is determined to redeem herself. So when the class gets an assignment to create a mobile game from recycled code, Allie pairs up with Courtney, her best friend from CodeGirls camp, to create the perfect app: Swap’d.

Kids buy, sell, and trade stuff at school all the time. Candy. Clothes. Video games. Slime. Why not make a fiercely competitive, totally anonymous, beat-the-clock game out of it?

Once Swap’d is in full-swing, Allie is certain that it’s the answer to all her problems. She’s making quick cash to help Courtney buy that really expensive plane ticket to come visit her. It’s giving her an excuse to have an actual conversation with her super-secret crush. And it looks like she might finally beat her archenemy-turned-friend, Nathan. She’s thought of everything. Or… has she?

The second book in the Click’d series by New York Times best-selling author Tamara Ireland Stone weaves together middle school friendship, first crushes, and serious coding skills in another fun, fast-paced, and empowering novel that will have readers cheering Allie on from the first page to the last. 

View this book on Goodreads

Review

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

I actually enjoyed this more than Click’d. This story picks up after Click’d with Allie deciding if she wants to go to the same summer camp as last summer or to a new summer program at a high-profile company. She wants to do both, but she can’t. She hesitates sending her application for the summer program and doubts whether she would even be accepted. She’s afraid to tell her best friend since they were planning on going to CodeGirls together again.

Allie mentions she’s going to a game convention as part of the reward she got for being in the competition with Click’d. Her friend loves games and wants to go with her. They look up prices and their parents say it’s too expensive.

In school, Allie’s class is given an assignment to reuse code in a short amount of time. Allie needs a solution to get enough money to help her best friend from CodeGirls to visit for the game convention. She combines her two goals – the class assignment will be one that can raise enough money to purchase plane tickets. The two work together to build an app, reusing code from their summer projects. It seems like they’re going to do it, until Allie’s teacher informs her of something and Allie has to choose to ignore it, or continue and get the money. They are so close!

I love how this dilemma reminds Allie of what happened with Click’d and she has to make that tough decision again: does she move forward and get the money to bring Courtney there, or does she shut it all down and tell Courtney they don’t have the money? I like how this series handles these ethical issues that many coders have had to deal with in their careers. Sometimes it’s hard to look the other way.

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Click’d by Tamara Ireland Stone

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Click’d

Author: Tamara Ireland Stone
Series: CodeGirls#1
Reviewer: Renee

Summary

Allie Navarro can’t wait to show her best friends the app she built at CodeGirls summer camp. Click’d pairs users based on common interests and sends them on a fun (and occasionally rule-breaking) scavenger hunt to find each other. And it’s a hit. By the second day of school, everyone is talking about Click’d.

 Watching her app go viral is amazing. Leaderboards are filling up! Everyone’s making new friends. And with all the data Allie is collecting, she has an even better shot at beating her archenemy, Nathan, at the upcoming youth coding competition. But when Allie discovers a glitch that threatens to expose everyone’s secrets, she has to figure out how to make things right, even if that means sharing the computer lab with Nathan. Can Allie fix her app, stop it from doing any more damage, and win back the friends it hurt-all before she steps on stage to present Click’d to the judges?

 New York Times best-selling author Tamara Ireland Stone combines friendship, coding, and lots of popcorn in her fun and empowering middle-grade debut.

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Review

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Click’d is a great MG story about a girl who writes code and struggles with doing what’s right vs winning a competition. It’s the kind of story I wish I had when I was younger.

Allie loves writing code and she’s one of the best in her class. She’s always competing with Nathan, another top student who always seems to just barely beat her. Their teacher sponsors them both in an important contest that can get them and their app a lot of publicity. The problem? Allie gets a little competitive and releases her app to her school the week before the competition.

She watches the data as more people join and she’s exciting seeing her classmates using the app at school. Everybody loves it! However, one of her friends shows her a bug and she only has days to fix it before the competition. She tries to hide this from her teacher/sponsor and Nathan. She can’t let Nathan know there’s something wrong with her app and she definitely can’t tell her teacher in case she decides to pull Allie from the competition. As her app becomes more popular, the chances of the bug happening increases. Her friends encourage her to disable the app but if she does that, she can’t be in the competition. She promises her friend she’ll solve it before anybody finds out.

Nathan and Allie spend their lunches in the computer lab working on their projects. Neither admits they have a problem. Even though they’ve known each other a long time, they start opening up the more time they spend together. Eventually they each admit they have a problem in their app. They work together to try to fix both apps before the competition.

Allie had to face some tough decisions around her app: does she keep it live knowing it has a bug that sometimes shows personal information? Should she ask for help? Who should she ask for help? How does she explain what she did to her friend who was hurt by the bug?

I didn’t expect the ending but I appreciated it. As a coder, I related to Allie’s challenges and enjoyed watching her learn from her mistakes. She had to make a lot of decisions throughout the story and accepted that she made mistakes by the end.

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Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

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Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore

Author: Robin Sloan
Reviewer: Leslie

Summary

The Great Recession has shuffled Clay Jannon away from life as a San Francisco web-design drone and into the aisles of Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, but after a few days on the job, Clay discovers that the store is more curious than either its name or its gnomic owner might suggest. The customers are few, and they never seem to buy anything; instead, they “check out” large, obscure volumes from strange corners of the store. Suspicious, Clay engineers an analysis of the clientele’s behavior, seeking help from his variously talented friends, but when they bring their findings to Mr. Penumbra, they discover the bookstore’s secrets extend far beyond its walls.

View this book on Goodreads.

Review

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

I’ve had this book on my shelf for a long time. With a title about a 24-hour bookstore and a back cover hinting at a mystery and assembly of characters, I couldn’t resist. However, I was fairly disappointed in how it ended up. 

I enjoyed the witty way that our main character, Clay, describes the world and other people, and also the themes that were broached throughout. One of the larger themes that I picked out was the way that advancements, like technology, might allow us to get things faster, isn’t part of the adventure the tediousness of the journey? Along with that, there’s a mystery, a secret society, some fancy detective work, and more.

However, the actual execution of everything didn’t really excite me. I was hoping that at some point, the action would pick up, or the tension would increase, but there weren’t enough negative side effects to really ramp it up. What I mean by this is that although there are some tense conflicts and situations, very, very few of them actually ended in any sort of consequences, leaving me with a sense that nothing could go wrong, so why worry?

I gave this a three out of five because I liked the style and language enough to finish, but put it down not feeling like I had really connected to anyone or anything in it. Even in writing this review, I almost forgot that I had even read it.

The Alice Network by Kate Quinn

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The Alice Network

Author: Kate Quinn
Reviewer: Inopinion

Content Warnings

Abortion, Torture, Unplanned Pregnancy, Description of Wartime Atrocities

Summary

A stand-alone Historical Fiction, this book follows three primary character arcs, with the niggling trick that two are the same woman. The book opens with Charlie St. Clair crossing the Atlantic and launching a search for her cousin, Rose, who last made contact at the height of the German occupation of France during World War II. Charlie finds an unlikely resource in Eve Gardiner, a 56 year-old violent drunk who was the last person to report on the search for Rose; and Eve’s driver, ex-con and ex-soldier, Finn. With her promise to pay, Charlie sets off into post-war France expecting to encounter the residue of the recent past. But instead, through Eve’s begrudging reveals, uncovers Eve’s younger self.

Eve wasn’t always a wreck downing bottles for dinner. As an English spy in German-occupied France in 1915, she walked a tightrope collecting information while undercover. And, as with all good Historical Fictions with two timelines, these two arcs intersect.

View this book on Goodreads.

Review

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Appeal:

Readers who appreciate stories like YA Historical Fiction The Book Thief or the adult novel The Guernsey Literary and Sweet Potato Peel Pie Society may also enjoy Alice Quinn’s The Alice Network. It contains adult topics like unplanned pregnancy, abortion, wartime atrocities, and depictions of torture, but it also contains strong statements on feminism, toxic masculinity, and perseverance. It can be dark but has lighter moment in equal measure.

Review:

What an insidious villain! Any time I look back on history, I try to find both sides of every story. It’s the point of learning about history: uncovering why it happened. And, of course, that’s true when looking at large troop movements and local lives alike. So, as the story lays out Rene and his business profiting from the Germans, there was a part of me that sort of said, “Good on ya.” He took money from the Germans, employed locals, and, had the Germans won, he would have been in a better position. It’s a very logical decision. But then there’s the other side, the side that condemns the collaborators. The side that looks on men who profited and strongly considers stringing them up to the lamp posts. Maybe not all of them deserved the vitriol and the violence that came to them, but Quinn’s Rene’ Bordelou couldn’t beg sympathy out of me. She builds him up slowly from strict businessman to harasser to toxic poet and then to an ultimately depraved sociopath who tortured, murdered, and massacred with impunity. He’s the scariest of villains because he is a mirror of reality, something that could easily exist around the corner or in your family tree.

The complexity of Eve Gardiner amazed me. When we first meet Eve, she’s in her fifties and perpetually seeing through a whiskey haze. She’s disfigured, gruff, and curses unlike any other woman of the times. She is a miserable sort that begs to be opened up and explored. Then Quinn takes us all the way back to a younger Eve that’s unrecognizable in comparison. She’s not all that dissimilar to Charlie. She has a nievite and wide-eyed wonder about her. She sparkles in her newness and shines as she sees her potential. And even as we follow her through her narrative as a younger woman, we get these flashes to the older Eve coming back to life in a sense. It’s not until towards the end that you can set each one side-by-side and understand the elder Eve. It is a masterful, and suspended unveiling that kept me moving from chapter to chapter, eager to find the moment of transformation.

Charlie St. Clair also has an arc from innocent college girl in trouble to steadfast, loyal, and fierce woman ready to plan her own life on her own terms. It’s not as complex as Eve’s but it’s a counterbalance to the weight of Eve’s narrative. There’s less of a surprise with Charlie. She is exactly what you expect on an easily sighted trajectory and she manages to hit the mark with ease if not grace.

It’s Charlie’s storyline, her search for Rose, that brings the rating down a star. While it was plausible and possible and even completed on a predictable note, it was a little flat. To use another metaphor, because we need one so desperately, it was the buildup to a storm that never flashed lightning. The completion of Eve’s arc nearly made up for it.