Kindle Quest 2014 - The Husband's Secret, The Grisha Trilogy, and More

So I've been pretty remiss about charting my progress through all the books on my kindle. What's worse is, I keep downloading more so there's no way I'll ever read them all. But then again, does anyone actually read these posts? Probably not, so it doesn't really matter.

That said, I still don't have the heart to pan the books I didn't like. Yes, I did give Hopeless a snarky review, but Colleen Hoover has thousands and thousands of five star ratings on Goodreads and Amazon, so I expect she'll get over it. Other authors, who don't get reviewed often and who might have a Google alert on their name or on the title of their book, might take a bad review more to heart. So I'll just say that there were several books I'd started in the last few months, but was unable to finish because they were boring or just BAD. Oh well, it happens. Now I'll move on to the good ones.

First, I was pleasantly surprised with Shadow and Bone, the first book in the Grisha trilogy, by Leigh Burdugo.

It's another one of those books with a strong, young heroine who has to fight to save herself, the world, and the man she loves. It's like Hunger Games in that sense, but this is more fantasy than dystopian, and interestingly, a lot is based off of Russian history. The Russian names for places, characters, and fantastical elements were a little hard to keep track of at first, but I got used to it and was glad I did. This story held some genuine surprises, and it's about how everyone, even a protagonist, has a dark side. I strongly recommend it!

I definitely enjoyed Still Missing, by Chevy Stevens. It was very dark, but not so much that there wasn't a chance for things to (sort of) work out. The main character had a strong voice and the suspense was gripping. I guess I'm into suspense novels lately; I'm not really sure why.

Speaking of suspense, Omens, by Kelly Armstrong, was pretty good. It's about this young woman who finds out that not only was she adopted, but her birth-parents were serial killers. So she of course questions her identity, and her relationships with her mom and her fiance become quite strained. She sets out on her own, to this town called Cainesville, and teams up with a hot lawyer to try and prove her parents' innocence. Oh, and she can read omens and Cainesville is a spooky town.

I thought the writing was good and I really liked the human drama element of the story. The omens thing, however, got a little tedious. Still, I plan to check out the next book from the library - it's a series. I'm hoping it will be on audio. That will be perfect to listen to in my car.

Now, finally, I read The Husband's Secret, which was fabulous! I had heard a lot about it, and it had been on my kindle for a while, and I was finally in the mood to tackle it. None of the secrets were things I couldn't see coming, and I expect other readers figured it out easily too. But this book is more about WHY we keep secrets, and how we come to terms with keeping things both from ourselves and from those whom we love.

The story has three main characters - Cecelia, Tess, and Rachel, and they each are at a crossroads. Each, in her own way, becomes connected to the murder of Rachel's daughter, Janie, which happened years ago. Liane Moriarty does and excellent job of weaving these stories together, all with the through line of the Berlin Wall. Yes, it sounds strange, but I thought it was pretty brilliant.

All of these books were downloaded for cheap on my kindle.