Secondworld by Jeremy Robinson is an exciting rush from beginning to end. We have all read thriller novels where people lose the essentials of life, such as food, safety or shelter; but air – that’s a new one. After this novel, I’m also thinking that it’s the most terrifying resource to lose!

Lincoln Miller is an ex-Navy Seal working as a NCIS Special Agent. He is sent to Aquarius, an undersea research facility to research undersea dumping. Miller thinks he sees dumping take place around the research facility and races to the surface to investigate and confront the polluters. He discovers not only a lack of polluters, but red flakes falling from the sky and no oxygen in the air.

Miller must escape the research facility when it is struck by a dead blue whale. From that point on it’s a non-stop race as he goes from one oxygen tank to the next. He soon discovers that Miami, Tel Aviv, and Tokyo have all been affected. Miller has seven days to save the rest of the world.

I highly suggest taking a deep breathe and diving into Second World.

I really, really enjoyed Ever After by Kim Harrison. My favorite genre is paranormal and this was right up my alley. This was the second Kim Harrison book that I’ve read and I’m excited to read more. This is the 11^th book in the Hollows series featuring Rachel Morgan, former witch turned day-walking demon. As a non avid read of this series I did not have all the back story but enough is provided that I didn’t feel like I was missing out for not having read all the other books. On the other hand, this book was good enough that I am definitely considering going back to read the one that I haven’t thus far.

In this novel, Rachel must fix the ever after in order to stay alive. She teams up with Trent Kalamack, an unlikely but quite successful ally. Together, with the help of others popular in this series including Al, Jenks, Ivy, Quen, and Bis, they work together to save both side of the ley lines. I would highly recommend it and the ending leaves one very eager to find out what’s going to happen next.

I just finished Touch & Go by Lisa Gardner. It was so, so good. This was my first time reading one of her novels. I had read many rave reviews about her work and looked forward to reading her newest novel. I was completely hooked from the first paragraph, it was very hard to put down. I really liked how she alternates the point of views in her chapters. The premise of the story is that a wealthy family is kidnapped including the husband, wife and their fifteen year old daughter. In one chapter, you read what is happening to them and the alternate chapters are from the point of view of those attempting to rescue them.

The characters in this novel were complex and extremely well developed. Sometimes I find that a book can become too bogged down in the details of the characters when there are so many of them. This was not the case in Touch & Go. It was so intense and absolutely no one was who they seemed to be. I will definitely be reading her next novel.

Friend and Readers,

This is definitely a John’s Pick! Once in a while I get to recommend a new author that goes way beyond the ordinary, and newcomer Jason Matthews delivers with Red Sparrow. Matthews tells an espionage tale from inside Putin’s Russia with an insider’s knowledge of the the CIA. It’s a novel packed with real-life experience about the spy trade, counterintelligence, surveillance trade craft, spy recruitment and handling, cyber warfare, and covert operations. Thanks to Jason Matthews the spy thriller is back with an exciting new voice.

                     You’ll love it!

                     John

Proof of Guilt by Charles Todd is the ultimate who-dun-it mystery. I had not read a book by this author before, or I should say authors as Charles Todd is actually Charles and Caroline Todd, a mother and son writing team. This is their 15^th Ian Rutledge mystery. Rutledge is a compelling character, an inspector in Scotland Yard during the 1920s with trauma from the war that has resulted in Hamish, a fellow soldier who he was ordered to kill during the war, being the voice in the back of his head. This mystery was a difficult one to figure out and I was shocked by the ending as I had definitely not figured out who the murderer was and how so many characters were connected. I enjoyed following along with Rutledge’s investigation and the mental process of figuring out a crime with so many people and so little evidence.

I am a huge fan of book series, especially those of the paranormal variety. I must have the new one as soon as its out, the wait between books is excruciating and when it finally ends I mourn the closing of a series.

I recently began a series by S.M. Stirling called the Shadowspawn. I just finished reading the first two books in this series, A Taint in the Blood (2010) and The Council of Shadows (2011) and the third, Shadows of Falling Night, is set to come out May of this year. The main characters in this series are Adrian and Ellen. Adrian is a Shadowspawn, which is kind of a vampire meets werewolf meets shape shifter. If you are a fan of the supernatural I would recommend picking up this series.

My favorite series is the Anita Blake series by Laurell K. Hamilton. The 22^nd book, Affliction, in this series is coming out in April. Anita Blake is many things but first and foremost is a vampire hunter. This series has it all: vampires, werewolves, necromancers, fellow vampire hunters, witches, fey, clairvoyants, and all the other were animals you could imagine. Whether you start with the first book and read them all or pick up anywhere in the series, this is definitely a series that is hard to break away from and one that I hope never ends.

My second favorite series is the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris made all the more popular by the True Blood series on HBO. Sookie Stackhouse is a telepathic waitress living in the small town of Bon Temps, Louisiana. Vampires have had their unveiling and are being acclimated into life of the living. Some vampires choose to main stream while others prefer to stick to their vampiric ways. Sookie meets Bill Compton, a vampire from the civil war era, who introduces her into a world she couldn’t have imagined. This series is also full of the paranormal. I am anticipate much mourning to come as the final book in the series, Dead Ever After, is coming out May of this year.

The final series that I am a huge fan of is the Dark Hunter series by Sherrilyn Kenyon. This series is also nice because it can be read in any order, I’ve bounced around in the order of these books and still enjoyed them all immensely. These novels are about Dark Hunters which are immortal warriors sworn to Artemis (the Greek goddess) and they defend humans against daimons (which are pretty much vampires except they take your soul as well as blood) and other various enemies. The 23^rd book in this series, Styxx, is scheduled to come out later this year.

I spend a great deal of my time reading but everything gets set aside when one of my series has a new book. I even have it marked on my calendar when the next one is set to be released! What about you? Do you have any series that you are fans of? Let me know! I’m sure other readers would like to know, but also selfishly I can always use a new series to become addicted to.

I started The Husband List by Janet Evanovich and Dorien Kelly yesterday morning and didn’t put it down until I finished it last night. I kept trying to put it down but just couldn’t do it. Jack Culhane was swoon worthy and my sympathy went to Caroline Maxwell. It’s a fun, light read and the only thing I could have hoped for was for it to keep going. I am a huge Janet Evanovich fan and am never disappointed when reading one of her novels, can’t wait to see what she comes up with next! My favorite of her novels are still those in her Stephanie Plum series, but I would be hard pressed to pick my favorite. I love them all!

I began reading Ash by James Herbert expecting a ghost hunter novel but the horror didn’t stop there. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that this book held much more than that of beyond the grave. David Ash  is a ghost hunter who is sent to investigate a remote and extremely private castle where the rich and famous (famous for illegal and immoral activities that is) hide away from society. There are horrors in that alone but the true horrors are below the main floor, out in the woods and some even beyond this world. This book keeps you on the edge of your seat and desperately hoping for Ash to find a way out. Was it at the top of my scare-o-meter? Well not quite, that position is still held by Blake Crouch but it’s definitely near the top of my list.

Let talk about scary books! I know this posting probably seems like it would be more appropriate for October but I just read the new R.L Stine novel, Red Rain, and it got me thinking about my favorite scary books. My all-time favorite author, that consistently give me the creeps and makes me scared to read my book in the dark, is none other than Blake Crouch.

I first stepped into the scary world he created, in Desert Places (2004). I had never read a book that scared me and kept me sucked in quite like this one. I eagerly read the next two books in his Andrew Z. Thomas series, Locked Doors (2005) and Stirred (2012). What a completely horrifying and exhilarating ride that was! He definitely tops my scare-o-meter.

I was excited to read the new R.L. Stine since when I was younger I was a huge fan of his Goosebumps series. Red Rain was an entertaining read however, thanks to Mr. Crouch, I can say that I wasn’t as terrified as I’ve come accustom to when reading horror novels. In a hope to step things up in the scary department, I’ve recently picked up Ash by James Herbert. Daily Mail of the U.K. says “Guaranteed to give you nightmares.” One can only hope, I’ll have to find out how many sleepless nights I’ll have from this terror. The Daily Mirror of the U.K. says “The kind of horror story where you think things can’t get any more grim-then they do….A ghoulishly compelling page-turner.” I’m getting pretty excited about this one.

I hope to finish the novel within the next week and will be sure to let you know where it rates on my scare-o-meter. Personally, I am hoping that it gives Blake Crouch a run for his money, I love a good scare.

Who is your favorite “scare master”?

I just completed Thirteen by Kelley Armstrong, the final book in her Otherworld series. (Though she does mention in the end that she has some anthologies coming out for the series and that she may one day come back to the series.) I have not read this entire series but I have read Bitten, Stolen, Dime Store Magic, Broken and Frostbitten. My favorite characters in this series are the ones it all began with, Elena and Clay. I was honestly a little sad when Elena was no longer the narrator so I took a break from these series except when it was from her point of view. All of the characters come together in Thirteen so I knew I didn’t want to miss it. I really enjoyed it and am now regretting that I didn’t read all of the novels in this series. Think I might have to go back and catch up on them. For those who are a fan of this series, well I don’t even have to tell you that you don’t want to miss this exciting conclusion. For those who haven’t read the other books, you’ll still enjoy it even if you don’t know the entire back story. I have always found that to be a good quality in a series, that while reading the other novels enhances the reading experience, it’s still enjoyable even if it’s your first time.