Review: Try Not to Die in Slattery Falls: An Interactive Horror Gamebook by Brenna LaFaro

Try Not to Die in Slattery Falls: An Interactive Horror Gamebook (#22 Try Not to Die Series)

by Brennan LaFaro

Release Date: June 16, 2026

2026 Vincere Press

Ebook Edition; 404 Pages

ISBN: 978-1961740563

ASIN: B0GHJL4ZYL

Genre: Fiction / Horror / YA

Source: Review copy from publisher

 

3.5 / 5 Stars

 

Summary

Slattery Falls is home to the most haunted house on the East Coast, the one nobody's ever heard of. You're Matty Hargrove, a senior determined to become a great horror writer, so when your classmate Nate Tedeschi offers a chance to explore the infamous Weeks House, you'd be a fool to say no. Especially with his twin sister Bex coming along.

The moment you step inside, it's clear something is wrong. The house isn't empty. It never was. For years, something in there has been watching, waiting, feeding, and now it has you.

Every decision sets your fate. A few might keep you alive a little longer. Most lead to brutal, unforgettable deaths.

 

My Thoughts

Try Not to Die in Slattery Falls is the first book I've read in the Try Not to Die series, and when I finished this book I actually picked up the first three and read them pretty quickly as I enjoyed them quite a bit. I had heard of this series, but never really had the time to indulge so I took the opportunity to do so after finishing this book. This book brought me back to my childhood and my enjoyment at reading the Choose Your Own Adventure books, so I thought it was quite interesting to see a horror version of this type of book. And let's just leave it at the fact that I was no better at choosing my fate as an adult than I was as a kid as I died multiple times in this book.  

 

I was already a fan of this author's work having read the Slattery Falls Trilogy (Book 3 being my favourite) as well as The Demon of Devil's Canyon, so I was familiar with the town of Slattery Falls and some of its history.  Therefore, I am not really sure how this book would land with someone who has not read at least the first book in the trilogy. This was definitely an interesting read, but I wasn't surprised at how quickly the storyline went darker than you would think as I expected this, and it definitely did go dark very fast as the story twisted and turned until suddenly, oops, I made the wrong choice yet again, and faced some very severe and ouchy consequences.  And I thought I was actually making good and logical choices.  

 

I did enjoy the story and some of the character development, but I did think the character development was somewhat one-dimensional and I also thought the story ended rather abruptly. Now, could the abrupt ending be because of the choices I made rather than the intended purpose, I don't really know, but I did read the alternate endings and I rather liked the darker ending far more. However, I do like twisted stuff so perhaps that was just a personal response.  The twists and turns were quite fun however, and you do learn a bit about the characters, but I still felt like the overall story was not as in-depth as it could have been. 

 

Verdict

Try Not to Die in Slattery Falls was an enjoyable choose-your-own-path book and I do have to say I am no longer confident about my chances of surviving a haunted house after this book as I died pretty abruptly not too long after entering the house and multiple times afterwards. The chapters were the perfect length to get invested in the story, but not so long that you got bored and after several poor choices, I could feel the tension in my body going up a little bit as I really wanted to make a good choice.  While I didn't think the characters were greatly developed, they were still relatable and you wanted to root for all of them.  I do have to say that the sentient house was one of the highlights of this book though.  As I've already mentioned, I was intrigued enough by this book to read three more in the series, so if you want something that may remind you of your childhood, or just something a bit different, this may be for you.  

 

Review: Rasputin: The Downfall of the Romanovs by Antony Beevor

Rasputin: The Downfall of the Romanovs

by Antony Beevor

Release Date: April 14, 2026

2026 Viking

Ebook ARC; 371 Pages

ISBN: 979-8217061181

ASIN: B0FHJY48KC

Audiobook: B0FKQBN7DG

Genre: Non-Fiction / Historical / Biography

Source: Review copy from publisher

 

2 / 5 Stars

 

Summary

When Russia's Dowager Empress was pregnant with the future Tsar, she dreamed that a peasant would one day kill her son. The idea terrified her, and for the rest of her days she 'lived under the pressure of the prophecy'.

Rasputin had no official position. A barely literate moujhik from Siberia, he had no forces at his command. He was a devoted monarchist, not a revolutionary. And yet, through his uncanny seduction of the imperial household, he contributed more than any other individual to the collapse of the greatest autocracy in the world. 'This man was unique', observed one writer. 'Like a character out of a novel, he lived in legend, he died in legend, and his memory is cloaked in legend.' 

 

My Thoughts

Rasputin: The Downfall of the Romanovs is one of those books I was looking forward to reading as I have had a lifelong fascination with Russia, all of the emperors, the politics, and the downfall of the Romanovs. However, what I was particularly looking forward to was this author's thoughts and viewpoints with regards to Rasputin, especially having read and loved Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege and The Fall of Berlin 1945, both more objective pieces of writing that allowed you to think and grasp the situations as they unfolded.  This one did not do that, implying the fall of the Russian empire had to do with one woman, as if all the other issues with Nicholas, the war, the political system, the plight of the peasants, the peasant revolt, the war with Japan, etc... had little value in what happened and this turned me off completely.

 

You can't have a biography about such a man and not invest time and effort into the political situation that existed, but I don't feel the author did either of those things justice. Maybe because the political situation was quite complex and goes back much further than Nicholas and Alexandra and you need a really good understanding of the people, the politics, the social structure, and so on in order to really understand why Alexandra reacted the way she did.  And believe me, I am in no way excusing her actions as the two of them together were a force of destruction, both being selfish, dysfunctional as well as incompetent. Face it, Nicholas made some really poor decisions, but the whole upper class was a lesson in dysfunctional at the time, and to throw them into a war for which they were completely unprepared would have thrown everything into chaos and allowed those who were waiting for a moment to strike to do so.  Who wouldn't? Do I feel sorry for how they met their ends? Of course, but I also understand why they died. War is a brutal time for everyone and a lot of people were suffering under Nicholas and Alexandra's rule so when you are desperate for change, you do what you must.  This is what the author failed to show in this book, placing the large part of the blame solely on Rasputin and Alexandra's shoulders when the issues are far more complex than that.  The cracks were already there, the people just broke them open.

 

Rasputin is certainly one of those people whom people should have been leery of as here comes this peasant, is invited to court, is invited to the inner circle of the most powerful people of the last autocratic society left, whispers in people's ears and they listen him, and Nicholas and Alexandra not only use him to look after their sickly child, but begin seeking his counsel for matters of state and other political policies. This man had really weird sexual relationships with other women, but Alexandra has no problem leaving him alone with your imperial princesses and doesn't wonder what he may be up to?  Don't forget, the Tsarina was German, so no wonder people thought Rasputin may be a spy. Who knows? And there is so much more. So much more that was convoluted and not explained in this book, something that was disappointing.  But what is clearly done? The woman is blamed for everything.  Does Alexandra deserve the roasting? Absolutely. Does Rasputin deserve the roasting? Yes. But that is such a simplistic view it is almost laughable.

 

Verdict

Rasputin: The Downfall of the Romanovs is one of those books in which I was really disappointed having really enjoyed this author's previous works. I felt this was convoluted and a bit messy, and while there were some interesting facts about Rasputin woven throughout the book, there was nothing really new. And I know this author knows his history and has done a lot of research about the time period so it was disappointing the work wasn't more detailed as it felt choppy as if the author couldn't get a grasp as to why the fall of the empire should fall squarely on Rasputin and Alexandra's shoulders. And I think if you try to simplify such a complex subject, or try to eliminate other factors involved, you get exactly that, a piece of work that is simple and somewhat boring.  Will I read more of this author's works? Yes, definitely as I have read four of his non-fiction books, not including this one, and really enjoyed the amount of research and thought that went into them and hope future ones will continue to have the same great content. This one, I can't recommend. 

 

 

Review: When the Wolves are Silent by C.S. Harris

When the Wolves are Silent (Sebastian St. Cyr, #21)

by C.S. Harris

Release Date: April 14, 2026

2026 Berkley

Ebook & Audiobook ARC; 381 Pages

ISBN: 978-0593953891

ASIN: B0FHJSWHTV

Audiobook: B0GD2GYH4V

Genre: Fiction / Historical Mystery

Source: Review copy from publisher

 

4 / 5 Stars

 

Summary

London, 1816: When a notorious young aristocrat is burned alive on a windswept hill popular with neo-Druids, former cavalry officer Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, finds himself plunged into a murder investigation shadowed by tales of ancient human sacrifices and long-buried secrets.

The victim, Marcus Toole, was the only son and heir of a prominent nobleman. His closest friend—Sebastian’s own nephew, Bayard—claims to have passed out drunk before the attack and remembers nothing. But when Sebastian and his brilliant wife, Hero, delve deeper into the sordid activities of Bayard and his friends, they come to realize that Bayard may not be as innocent as he pretends. Following a tangled trail that leads from a disaffected former soldier-turned-highwayman to a beautiful, courageous journalist and a Jamaican-born fencing master with ties to a radical political movement, Sebastian begins to suspect that Bayard and his friends are being targeting in revenge, by victims who believe they have no other recourse. 

 

My Thoughts

When the Wolves are Silent is the next entry in the long-running Sebastian St. Cyr mystery series and I enjoyed this one quite a bit simply because the author focused on how the privileged can abuse their power during this time period rather than world politics. It's not that the impact of what was happening in the world wasn't mentioned, discussed, or described as that is the purpose behind Hero's actions in most of these books, but it wasn't the center of the story which was a bit of a relief as I needed a bit of a break from the political intrigue. Simply put, I found this one quite intriguing as it gave me a lot to think about in terms of abuse by the wealthy and how the spoiled offspring of the wealthy can have detrimental effects on a society.

 

I have always enjoyed the relationship between Hero and Sebastian, and while it was not really the center of the story it was always good to revisit them and see how they are doing. Because this series has been so long-running, it is not really necessary for the author to develop these characters the way it was done in the first few books as those of use who have followed the books are aware of who they are, what they have done, and their relationships. So, I enjoyed the focus on the secondary characters or the ones who are just appearing for the first time in these pages. I thought the author did a great job highlighting how wealth has come to be seen as a right rather than a privilege and how it has been abused throughout the generations. But what I found particularly interesting is the way people were now fighting that right and demanding answers for injustice against the abuse.  The early nineteenth century was certainly a time of change, especially after the Napoleonic Wars, and people were no longer willing to put up with 'privilege' in the same way. It would take a long time for the thinking to change, but I liked how the author developed the characters to showcase the fight and the tragedy when things go really badly.

 

The plot moved along quickly, and I was glad to see Sebastian involved in a case that did not involve the government, a government plot, treason, and so on. This was more about how young spoiled men abused their wealth and privilege to create havoc and destroy lives when they do not get their way. I liked how this theme was woven around other crises such as drought and the plight of soldiers returning from the war. The theme of slavery in the colonies also rose to the surface in this book through some of the characters and it was interesting to see how the author wove that throughout the story as well.  There were a lot of themes running through this books as well: poverty, abuse, rape, abuse of power, privilege, wealth, war, slavery, drought, helplessness, and so on.  

 

Verdict

When the Wolves are Silent was quite enjoyable and featured the type of storytelling that I think is one of the strengths of this author's as it focused more on the society, the time period, and some of the difficulties the people experienced during this time period without having to focus on the political leaders. The themes running through this book also gives the reader a lot to think about and to reflect on as you read about the plight of the people.  I did struggle with the previous two books in this series, which happens in long-running series, so I was quite happy to see the author focus on what I think are strengths of this series, the plight of everyday people and their fights for justice.

'  

 

Review: 14 by J.T. Ellison

14 (Taylor Jackson, #2)

by J.T. Ellison 

Release Date: May 19, 2026 (Originally published January 1st, 2008)

2026 Thomas & Mercer

Ebook Edition; 346 Pages

ISBN: 978-1662541407

ASIN: B0GHZM7J8R

Audiobook: B003JOAK6S

Genre: Fiction / Mystery / Suspense

Source: Review copy from publisher

 

4 / 5 Stars

 

Summary

Lieutenant Taylor Jackson is no stranger to brutality, but her latest case shakes her to the core. The victims—with their pale skin, black hair, and ruby-red lips—recall a nightmare Nashville suffered decades ago. The Snow White Killer slaughtered ten princess look-alikes and was never caught.

A copycat is methodically recreating the Snow White murders, studying the original crimes and perfecting the craft. As Taylor fights to identify him before he completes his twisted homage, the investigation pulls her into a conspiracy that hits closer to home than she ever imagined.

 

 

My Thoughts

14 is the second book in the Taylor Jackson series, and when I was offered books 2-4 of the series, I immediately jumped at the chance having read the first book all those years ago. It's funny how certain books stick in your mind all these years later as I had no trouble remembering some of the details of Taylor's relationship as well as parts of the first mystery having of course forgotten the minute details. This book grabbed my attention right from the get-go and didn't let up until the end although I could have done without the chapters from a certain person.

 

Taylor is a strong lead and I liked how determined she is. She's intelligent and doesn't put her team into danger by doing stupid things and taking unnecessary risks.  I've always enjoyed it when an author takes things on a much personal level, making cases an emotional and psychological investment and this is exactly what happens with this one, raising the stakes for Taylor both personally and professionally. Because of this, the decisions she made would have profound effects on everyone around her, not just on her personally so the stakes are much higher. I didn't think the secondary characters were as developed in this one and I developed a hatred for Charlotte's chapters which is why I didn't rate this one higher as I didn't see the need for her chapters other than to add silly drama.  I understood why they were there, but they did take away from the tension of the story for me and made it more predictable.

 

The plot moved along quite rapidly which is often the case when you have multiple murders and kidnappings.  However, while I did enjoy the book and it was full of tension, it was a bit on the predictable side.  There were some good twists and turns and there were some that you could see coming a mile away, but it definitely went in a way I thought it would go towards the end. This didn't affect the tension in any way and I did have trouble putting down the book as I was invested.  There were a lot of themes running through this book; abuse, death, murder, the breakdown of family relationships, father-daughter relationships, loyalty, trust, lack of parenting, selfishness, wealth, and the list goes on and on.  

 

Verdict

14 was a decent mystery with a lot of tension even if there were moments that were quite predictable. I do think the newer version was more tightly woven than the older book one that I had read years before so reading the updated version was well worth it. While this was definitely plot-driven, the author didn't ignore the character development, in particular with regards to Taylor and the impact this was having on her as she was analyzing her relationships with her non-existent parents. I am looking forward to continuing this series with Judas Kiss. 

 

Review: Stay for a Spell by Amy Coombe

Stay for a Spell 

by Amy Coombe

Release Date: April 14, 2026

2026 Ace

Ebook & Audiobook ARC Editions; 373 Pages

ISBN: 978-0593955536

ASIN: B0FHJSXKT4

Audiobook: B0FHLHG1YR

Genre: Fiction / Fantasy / Cozy / Romance

Source: Review copy from publisher

 

3 / 5 Stars

 

Summary

Princess Tanadelle of the Widdenmar is disillusioned with life as a princess. She longs for real conversation, the chance to build a life of her own making, and uninterrupted reading time.

During a routine royal visit to the town of Little Pepperidge, Tandy’s dream comes true when she finds herself cursed to remain in a run-down bookshop until she unlocks her heart’s desire. Certain that someone will figure out how to break the curse eventually, and delighted by the prospect of an entire bookstore of her own, Tandy settles into life among the stacks.  
There's just one, minor problem: as Tandy's royal duties go unfulfilled, her frantic parents start sending princes to woo her, each one of them certain their kiss will break the curse. After all, what more could a princess want but a prince?

 

My Thoughts

Stay for a Spell is the first in a planned trilogy, and while I did enjoy this, I did find it a bit predictable and honestly, other than a whole series of princes showing up to kiss the princess, nothing really happened. I understand this a cozy fantasy, but I have read a lot of cozy fantasy as fantasy is one of the genres I read a lot, and I do feel there should be more happening than Tandy crying every time she thinks she has to return to her duties.  She is a princess of the realm after all.  

 

I didn't mind Tandy as a character and I liked the fact she got drunk and went a little wild as I appreciated the fact she was alone for probably the first time in her life and was able to do things she was forbidden to do.  It kind of reminds me of university students let loose the first week and have no parental supervision for the first time in their lives and realize they don't have to answer to curfew or whatever.  I don't really feel like her character was fully developed however as she felt so superficial in her responses.  

 

The secondary characters were interesting, but again, I didn't really feel like I got to know them or understand them as they were developed on a one-dimensional level with little depth. Yes, I know the characters had issues, but they were minor and I didn't really empathize too much as I couldn't really connect with them. And this isn't just because this book is a cozy fantasy as I have read other cozy fantasies where the characters were written in-depth with a lot of personality.  The pirate had so much going for him that he could have been the most interesting character. I understand there is going to be another book, but to withhold too much information for this reason seems sort of silly to me. 

 

The plot was simple and predictable and you could tell exactly what Tandy needed to do to break the curse from the minute it happened. Being a cozy fantasy doesn't mean there aren't any stakes or issues for the MC, but this just rolled along as if Tandy could just ignore the fact she was a princess and just have her greatest desire and this didn't sit right with me.  There were some fun things in this book and I don't want to ignore those as I enjoyed the scene when she gets drunk and I did think some of the scenes with the princes were funny as well, but I did wish the author had spent more time describing the world and how it worked, especially how Tandy's family fit into it.

 

Verdict

Stay for a Spell was a low-stakes cozy fantasy that was quite predictable and had a very simply plot. While I enjoyed it, I did wish both the characters and the plot had been more developed; the characters were one-dimensional with little depth, and the plot just rolled along with little happening and Tandy whining about how she doesn't want to be a princess.  I just felt like there should have been more stakes involved considering she was a princess and it wouldn't be that easy to get away from your duties. That being said, as a whole, the book worked, was fun, and would definitely appeal to those looking for a light fun read.  The next book in this world will be published in 2027, The Dark Wizard Falls in Love. 

 

Review: First Sign of Danger by Kelley Armstrong

First Sign of Danger (Haven's Rock, #4)

by Kelley Armstrong

Release Date: February 17, 2026

2026 Minotaur Books

Ebook and Audiobook ARC Editions; 337 Pages

ISBN: 978-1250351821

ASIN:  ‎ B0F5PDG8NF

Audiobook: B0F6FTWB73

Genre: Fiction / Mystery

Source: Review copy from publisher

 

4 / 5 Stars

 

Summary

Detective Casey Duncan and her husband, Sheriff Eric Dalton, are entering a new chapter of life as parents to their six-month-old baby. Their family is hidden away in the sanctuary town of Haven's Rock where they can live safe and private lives. But when they encounter hikers too close to the borders of Haven's Rock, they realize they're in danger of being exposed.

When they find one of the hikers dead the next day, they realize that their paranoia was justified, but they're no closer to finding out who these people were and what they were doing in the vicinity of Haven's Rock. Only by tracing the hikers' movements, as well as examining the recent behavior of their closest neighbors, the workers of a secretive mining camp, will they be able to figure out where the threat is coming from and shut it down. Otherwise, the lives of everyone in Haven's Rock--and their safe, secure new existence--are at risk.

 

My Thoughts

First Sign of Danger had an interesting story line in the fact that you can be both paranoid and overly cautious to the point where your paranoia sees things that aren't really there.  I like this book far better than the previous installment as it clears up several loose threads that have been on-going for several books and it always delves into the psychological aspects of living in secrecy and the impact that can have on its people. There was a lot to explore in this book.

 

I have been following Casey and Eric since book one of the Rockton books and reading about them as parents is quite interesting. As one of the only children in the community, it did make me wonder about the child growing up, their teenage years, and how Casey and Eric would cope with that as they are so isolated.  It was fun to see them coping with a teething baby while they still had to investigate the strangers in the forest and how that discovery would impact them. While the author doesn't ignore the character development, because we are so many books into the series, I don't think it is as relevant as it would be at the beginning of the series and the author can focus on the ensemble as well as the psychological elements of being so isolated.

 

The plot was interesting and like I already mentioned, it did clear up some threads that have been continuing throughout the series, and it definitely was not what I was expecting.  The Yukon wilderness comes alive in these books and as an avid hiker myself, I love the descriptions of them in the woods and how they track and search for people and clues.  I am personally deathly afraid of grizzly bears so I don't think I would hike there myself, but I the descriptions were vivid and I could picture myself there.  While the territorial dispute is central to the story, there is underlying plot that has been seeping through the books for a while now and it is finally rearing its ugly head as Casey and Eric realize they have a much bigger problem than they were anticipating.  The author does a great job at building suspense and tension, balancing procedural work with creepy scenes (such as the one with the bear), and when I thought I had it figured out, another twist came along. 

 

Verdict

First Sign of Danger was a step up from the previous book where I had to suspend belief way too much. It was full of twists and turns and the author definitely showed how dangerous the elements in the Yukon (Canada's boreal forest) could be in this one. If you hike, you know how quickly things can turn ugly and I like how she showed that, no holding back.  While I do think this could be read as a standalone, I do recommend you start with the Rockton series to get a full understanding of the characters, their paranoia, and why they live where they live for a richer experience. 

 

Review: Jake's Magical Market by J.R. Mathews

Jake's Magical Market (Jake's Magical Market, #1)

by J.R. Mathews

Release Date: June 30, 2026 (Originally published independently in 2021)

2026 Aethon; Vault 

Hardcover & Ebook Editions; 576 Pages

ISBN: 978-1638493464

ASIN: B09HWX11N9

Audiobook: B09MDLDT2C

Genre: Fiction / Fantasy / LitRPG

Source: Review copy from publisher

 

4.5 / 5 Stars

 

Summary

Jake is working at the neighborhood market under his apartment when the world ends. He expected nuclear war, a computer virus, or even climate change burning everyone to a crisp to bring about the downfall of civilization. But cruel and arbitrary gods from another world? Who would have guessed that?

Jake, wasting his day slacking off in the cooler, as he usually did, found himself alone in a completely new and very dangerous world. Can he learn to survive? Can he collect enough cards and create a good enough deck to fight back against the monsters that have overtaken his former home? And why are these strange people that look a lot like elves knocking on the door of the market he is hiding in and asking to buy some of his goods?

 

My Thoughts

Jake's Magical Market was quite a bit different from what I was expecting.  I have read a lot of LitRPG from progression fantasy to portal fantasy to cozy ones to dungeon-core ones, but what I first thought was going to be a nice slice-of-life fantasy turned out to be something a bit different.  Yes, I was drawn in by the more cozy elements at the beginning of the novel, but that did change when Jake's life took a major turn about a third of the way into the book, and I was there for the ride.  

 

One of the things I enjoyed was Jake's personal growth. You can have all the great worldbuilding you want, but if the characters don't grow and develop, the book always falls short for me. Jake is one of those characters who was at a crossroads in his life, not really caring about his job and not really sure where his ambitions lay after leaving college to take care of his mom. With the collapse, Jake was forced out of his comfort zone to do things he would never have done and we see him slowly develop from this lackadaisical figure to one who takes charge and takes chances. He also reflects on his growth as a person and discards those things he doesn't like about himself and works on improving himself so he can do better in the future.  He learns to cultivate friendships and to understand how his depression impacted his life. I actually thought the theme of depression was very well depicted in this novel as well as trust and Jake struggled with both throughout the book.  And some of the things that happened to him definitely would have impacted both of these.  It was interesting to see how Jake dealt with a lot of the things that happened to him in this novel and I thought the author did a great job at showing his growth as well as the challenges his faced while dealing with things. Yes, he may have done some questionable things while suddenly dealing with new threats, but he was the type of character who didn't really do stupid things and learned from his mistakes so I liked that about him.  

 

The secondary characters were also well done, and while not quite as well developed as Jake, were still interesting in their own right.  

 

And now, the plot.  I understand why the author chose to do things the way they were done and I understand the title of the book is more of a play on words as it certainly led me into a false sense of what was going to happen in this book. But that is what reading is all about, isn't it? To get caught off guard. To be unpredictable? And the story definitely sent me in a spiral and caught me off guard. But it was fun!!! I didn't know what to expect from about one-third of the way in and just enjoyed the journey Jake was on and the characters that were introduced.  I thought the world-building was great and liked how the story and what was happening developed. Yes, he does some questionable things in order to do what needs to be done, but Jake also develops as a person as he realizes he doesn't want to be the person who does these things and makes choices that are good for him.  Of course he makes mistakes, otherwise how would he learn for the future. That whole concept bothers me to no end as there is not one person in this world who doesn't make mistakes. It's how we learn from them that shows our character and our growth. The only thing I found to be a problem is that I never really felt that Jake was in real danger or worried that anything would happen to him, and he definitely developed his powers quickly.  But that is more a me issue than an issue with the book. There are a lot of themes to unpack in this book as well, including depression, self-isolation, loss, death, growth, family, trust, found family, abuse of power, and the list goes on. 

 

Verdict

Jake's Magical Market was a fun read, and yes, it totally caught me off guard, but that was why it was so much fun.  I expected a slice-of-life book and got something a bit different; once I wrapped my head around that fact, I really enjoyed the world-building and the characters.  I would have liked to have seen a bit more use of the cards as I found them fascinating, and I did think Jake's growth in the second half was a bit much, but I personally like the struggle as much as I like the action so it's probably just a me issue. Highly recommend this book if you are looking for an interesting post-apocalyptic fantasy litrpg.  

 

Review: Bodies and Battlements by Elizabeth Penney

Bodies and Battlements (A Ravensea Castle Mystery, #1)

by Elizabeth Penney

Release Date: March 27, 2025

2025 Minotaur Books

Ebook Version; 288 Pages

ISBN: 978-1250270051

ASIN:  ‎ B0DCTNBQ59

Genre: Fiction / Cozy Mystery

Source: Review copy from publisher

 

4 / 5 Stars

 

Summary

Herbalist Nora Asquith is delighted to welcome Ravensea Castle’s first guests to the picturesque village of Monkwell, Yorkshire. After a thousand years of ownership, her family has decided to convert the castle into a bed and breakfast. But when Hilda Dibble, a self-appointed local luminary, is found dead in the knot garden the next morning, Nora’s business is not only at risk—she’s a prime suspect.

Hilda had opposed the hotel plan every step of the way, and although she didn’t succeed in stopping the venture, her disagreements with Nora seem to only further her motive.

 

 Nora and her actress sister Tamsyn decide to investigate for themselves. They look into the entangled dealings of their newly arrived guests, while also getting hints from Sir Percival, one of the castle ghosts. As they learn, Sir Percival’s tragic death centuries ago sheds light on present-day crimes. Surely they can get to the bottom of this mystery while keeping their new business afloat . . .

 

My Thoughts

Bodies and Battlements is the first entry in a new cozy mystery series for this author, and while I did find the plot to be somewhat straight-forward and predictable, I really enjoyed the characters, the setting, and the relationships that were being built and this is definitely what defines a cozy mystery for me.

 

It is always difficult to develop characters in the first book of a series as you have to ensure you don't give too much away about them, but at the same time you don't want them to seem one-dimensional. I thought the author did a great job with the characters in this book as I felt connected to them and enjoyed their different viewpoints with regards to the bed and breakfast being created  and its connection to the long history of the building and the lands. Nora was hard-working, loyal to her family and her family history, but when push came to shove, she knew exactly when to stick up for what she believed and when it was necessary to give a little.  I liked that she was also an apothecary, grew her own herbs on the land, and sold her items around the neighbourhood as well. There seems to be a lot of possibility with that avenue to exploit in the future.

 

Nora's sister Tamsyn, and their father were also fun characters to round out the main characters. Tamsyn is quite different from her sister and I really liked her spirit. I liked how steadfast Nora's father was and how he liked to research his family history when things started to happen. But then, I would have been all over those papers if I had access to a thousand years of my own family's history.  Just think of it!!  

 

The plot moved along rather quickly, and I did find it to be somewhat predictable, but I liked the added 'pararnormal' twist of the resident ghosts. A place as old as this has to have at least one or two ghosts!!  There is a bit of an actual police investigation, but this is a cozy mystery so most of the action comes from Nora and Tamsyn as they investigate. I did appreciate that they didn't do anything silly and told the police whatever they knew though, as I dislike it intensely when characters keep things to themselves just to move a plot point forward.  This didn't reduce the tension when things did happen however, so it was fun to see how they got out scrapes and what they would discover in such an old place.  

 

Verdict

Bodies and Battlements was an enjoyable read, and the fact that I figured out the ending didn't lesson my enjoyment at all. I really needed a cozy read at the moment as I have been reading some heavy hitters and this one fit the bill perfectly.  Both the characters and the plot were fun and I enjoyed the historical aspect to the story as much as learning about the local area that will probably feature in future books. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys cozy mysteries, and I am now off to read the second book in this series.  

 

Review: True Crime by Patricia Cornwell

True Crime: A Memoir

by Patricia Cornwell

Release Date: May 5, 2026

2026 Grand Central Publishing

Hard Cover ARC; 464 Pages

ISBN: 978-1538778449

ASIN: B0FTWDWQ47

Audiobook: B0FY85VMQ5

Genre: Non-Fiction / Memoir

Source: Review copy from publisher

 

3 / 5 Stars

 

Summary

In this achingly honest memoir, Cornwell excavates her own life, detailing her traumatic childhood being raised by neglectful parents, her father abandoning the young family on Christmas day, her mother being institutionalised twice, an abusive foster family, and developing a parental relationship with evangelist Billy Graham's wife Ruth. Cornwell depicts a harrowing hospitalisation and near-death car accident. She unflinchingly shares overcoming obstacles that later gave her the ambition to become an award-winning police reporter. From there it was research in a medical examiner's office that would turn into a full-time job. She would become a forensic expert and worldwide publishing phenomenon.

 

My Thoughts

True Crime is one of those memoirs to which I was looking forward because I had a vested interest in the Kay Scarpetta series when they were first published.  My interest has since waned for a variety of reasons, but I still remember those early days and having a female Chief Medical Examiner as a lead in a murder mystery series was exciting and interesting. Patricia Cornwell has definitely had a very interesting life, one that has been fairly unstable, full of abuse and trauma, and I am not really here to rate that aspect of the book, but the overall way in which she shares her story was somewhat rambling and a bit annoying and this is what I am reviewing.

 

By the first half of the book, the author is barely out of high school with a full memory of things that have happened to her.  I am not questioning the trauma, the abuse, the neglect, etc..., and she certainly shares a lot of traumatic episodes with us, but I do sort of question the level of detail, although her journals may have helped with that.  What I can't recall is when she actually started keeping journals as I don't remember her mentioning them when she was younger, only as she grew older and developed bulimia. 

 

For a writer with as many awards for her books as she has, I would have expected this memoir to be more concise and less rambling than it was, but it was all over the place, jumping from topic to topic constantly. She also seemed to jump quite quickly past topics where she should have taken more responsibility for her actions, but seemed to gloss right over those as if they just happened, she got lucky she wasn't charged, and just moved on to the next thing which sort of a left a bad taste in my mouth.  It made it seem like she felt more lucky and didn't really seem to acknowledge the risks and danger she put others in.  Comments like 'Everyone used to to this' just don't really fly when you should be responsible for your actions.   

 

I did think the work she did for in a medical examiner's office was interesting and I did find it fascinating to learn about some of the things she did as research for her books.  But even some of that comes off as bragging as she has this tendency to gloss over some of the more interesting things to name drop, discuss her house or car purchases, etc..., and because this happens repeatedly, it got old, fast.  There were some really amazing things that happened, some important ones, but those were just mentioned in passing; however, we did get to read two pages about the great car she purchased and was grateful she wasn't driving the night she crashed because she was drunk. And even then she blamed her actions on the medication she was taking. Um, when you drink, what do you think could happen?  

 

Verdict

True Crime definitely had some very interesting aspects to it and I appreciated how much research she did while writing her novels. She worked in a morgue, volunteered with the local police force and ambulance, spent time at the Body Farm, learned how to fly helicopters, and a lot of other interesting things. But I really felt like she was being very guarded with regards to this memoir and didn't really share much about what she has been doing these last years as most of it was spent on her childhood.  By the end of the book, while I can empathize with the trauma and abuse she suffered as a child, I still am not sure how that fueled her writing.  She did say that authors are very jealous of each other so maybe she didn't want to share that aspect for this reason, but in the end, I don't feel like I really got to know her, what she really likes to do other than play tennis, and all of it is superficial. Again, authors can reveal as much as they want, but I would have expected something a bit tighter in its writing and this one rambled too much, glossing over things that seemed important.   

 

Review: Pretty Dead Things by Kelsey Cox

Pretty Dead Things

by Kelsey Cox

Release Date: July 7, 2026

2026 Minotaur Books

Ebook ARC; 336 Pages

ISBN: 978-1250378842

ASIN: B0FLYPRSWV

Audiobook: B0FP48M1Q9

Genre: Fiction / Mystery

Source: Review copy from publisher

 

3 / 5 Stars

 

Summary

2000: Isabelle Whitmore vanishes at Sherman Ranch in Anhalt, Texas, without a trace.

2025: The annual Lone Star Princess Pageant looms, bringing long-standing grudges to the surface. Ingrid fled Anhalt in the wake of her sister Isabelle’s disappearance and has now returned, just in time for a construction crew to start digging up Sherman Ranch; the pageant brings up past traumas that Melanie can't forget; Cat, newly sober, starts to feel threatened in ways that bring back old demons; and Sarah Lynn, who comes from a long line of pageant winners, knows that losing is not an option.

When old resentments and new confrontations reach their boiling point, temperatures drop to deadly degrees as a record-setting storm brings down the state’s power grid. With everyone trapped under one roof, scores will be settled, and more than one person will end up dead.

 

My Thoughts

Pretty Dead Things had an interesting description and I liked the idea of former beauty pageants preparing their daughters for the same pageant in which they competed twenty-five years earlier. I thought there would be a lot more intrigue and a lot more of the toxicity that the book earlier implied, but it seemed a bit meh to me as far as that went. While the writing style had a way of drawing me into the story and definitely had its moments, I did find it predictable and thought the characters were pretty one-dimensional.

 

The story was told through multiple POV and I didn't feel like I really got to know any of them except on a superficial level.  In hindsight, I think I connected with Cat the most because I empathized with her situation and how it must feel to always have people second-guessing your sobriety and relating your current situation to anything you did in the past. I didn't empathize as much with Sarah Lynn and Melanie although I think I was supposed to feel more sympathy for Melanie and be annoyed by Sarah Lynn. Melanie just annoyed the crap out of me and I wanted to know more about Sarah Lynn as I found her interesting. Yes, she was toxic as hell, but she seemed to have the most personality out of all of them.  In any case, none of them were developed above a superficial level and I didn't really care about most of them. 

 

The book takes place in a small Texas town where the Princess Pageant is the highlight of these young girls lives and can change their lives. I did find the dialogue surrounding the pageant to be quite interesting and I would have liked more discussion around the actual pageant and its toxicity, especially when they were discussing the prize package. Where I live, pageants aren't a thing so I do find the pageant scene to be quite fascinating. I liked how the discussions evolved from simple makeup to makeup tutorials to expensive dresses to plastic surgery. Considering one of the prizes in the prize package was a trip to a plastic surgeon, it brings up a great topic of beauty and acceptance with regards to young adults and beauty influencers.  

 

The mystery itself wasn't bad, but I did find it somewhat predictable based on characters who did things that were predictable. It really wasn't that hard to figure out who the culprit was and I sort of wished it had gone in a different direction, but there you have it.  The set-up is pretty stereotypical as well as you have a power outage, an impending storm, things occurring to pageant members, and a room full of mothers and daughters who want desperately to win. There was a lot of foreshadowing included in this book that didn't quite work the way the author intended and left me feeling somewhat disappointed. 

 

Verdict

Dead Pretty Things was an interesting read, but I don't think it quite worked for me.  There were a lot of threads and plot lines in this book and I felt like the author wasn't sure which thread to have stand out or which one to pull the tightest.  I did like the discussion surrounding pageants, grudges, toxicity, etc... and there was a lot of unpack in terms of themes, but overall, the ending was unsatisfying and I thought the overall character development was weak.   

 

Review: Half City by Kate Golden

Half City (Harker Academy, #1)

by Kate Golden

Release Date: February 17, 2026

2026 Ace

Audiobook & Ebook ARC; 496 Pages

ISBN: 978-0593953433

ASIN:  ‎ B0F88X3LP9

Audiobook: B0FBH51228

Genre: Fiction / Urban Fantasy

Source: Review copy from publisher

 

4 / 5 Stars

 

Summary

Viv Abbot is an average twenty-one-year-old girl. She lives in an expensive city where the rent is too high, works long hours at a thankless job, and is dating a guy she doesn’t even like in the hopes of winning her prickly mother’s approval. She just also happens to be a demon hunter.

Ever since her father's murder, she's been forced to hunt deviants alone, meaning everyone, including her family, sees her as an outsider. . . . Until the day she crosses paths with a dangerously alluring demon, Reid Graveheart. The reformed deviant tells her of a school for people just like her: Harker Academy for Deviant Defense. If she enrolls, she'll learn to hone her craft, work with other hunters, and never be alone again.

But Viv has a deadly secret. One that not even her new friends at Harker can know about. Not when the school might hold the answers to untangling the mystery surrounding Viv's father’s death. When strange occurrences begin to plague the students, Viv will have to figure out who she can trust, and fast. All while trying to ace her classes, not fall for a demon, and make it through her first year at Harker in one piece. How hard could that be?

 

My Thoughts

Half City is one of those books that took me a little while to really get into, but now I'm fully invested. I think part of the problem is that I couldn't warm up to Viv at all, but I liked the world-building and the other characters enough to continue so when things really started to get interesting, I was in it for them and not necessarily for Viv. There were plenty of twists and turns and while some of them were a bit predictable, there were enough of them that caught me off guard to keep this story interesting.

 

First of all, let's start with Viv as a main character. While she eventually did grow on me somewhat, and I do understand why she is the way she is, there is something about how she looks down on others that is a bit condescending, as if her powers and how she has been fighting demons for her entire life grants her the right to be that way. When things go sideways later on in the book because of some bad decisions on her part, I was glad to see some redemptive arcs in her character development so I am hopeful the author created her this way on purpose and we will see how grow throughout the series.  For now, that is enough and while I can't empathize with her at the moment, I understand her a bit better by the end of the book and am glad to see the author is not neglecting character development.  

 

I did however, really enjoy the secondary characters in this book, and one character really caught me off guard as I did not guess what was happening there at all, so I am looking forward to learning more about them and seeing them grow and develop along with Viv.  For me, the secondary characters made up for Viv and her attitude.  And Deacon? Probably one of the best characters in this book so far, so mysterious and...I don't know what else to say about him at this point. But can't wait to find out more.

 

The plot actually moved a bit slowly at the beginning as it was focused on world-building and Viv's background, but when it picked up, it definitely picked up and I had to put the book down to think about all the little side plots that were going on. I liked the concept of the demon hunter academy and while I know the concept is not new and is quite tropy, it was still fun as all get out.  I did think the weakest point of the book was the 'romance', not because I am opposed to romance in this book, but because I didn't quite feel it yet. Don't get me wrong, I want some zap and some zing between Reid and Viv, nand while it was fun, I'm not fully feeling it. And I have some theories about our Reid and his role in this book.  And about Deacon. Should be some interesting times ahead for our characters. 

 

Verdict

Half City was an engaging read, and I enjoyed the audiobook quite a bit. While it did start a bit more slowly as it spent some time world-building and introducing characters, it built up to quite a crescendo in the end where I couldn't stop listening.  I enjoyed the overall investigation as well as the attacks on the school and thought the training was interesting, but I liked that kind of thing which is why I gravitate towards LitRPG because there are so many books with that trope.  I am glad to see the author put a lot of emphasis on character development as well as plot development and yet, there is still a lot of room for our characters to grow. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys urban fantasy and I am looking to my ARC read of book two.  

 

Review: In Case I Go Missing by R.N. Swann

In Case I Go Missing

by R.N. Swann

Release Date: May 26, 2026

2026 Viking Books for Young Readers

Ebook ARC; 400 Pages

ISBN: 978-0593695333

ASIN:  ‎ B0FNVY6N8V

Audiobook: B0GR8CP6MK

Genre: Fiction / YA / Mystery

Source: Review copy from publisher

 

4 / 5 Stars

 

Summary

Seventeen-year-old Fenny Allen has been Sarah Vincenty's sidekick for as long as she can remember, ever since the two of them solved the mystery of the stolen library books back in elementary school. Over the years, Sarah has ruffled a few feathers in their small town, building a reputation as both an amateur detective and a vigilante who has dispensed her own form of justice.

Now Sarah is missing. The police have written her off as yet another teen runaway, but Fenny is convinced that something more sinister has happened. When she discovers a binder Sarah left behind entitled In Case I Go Missing, Fenny learns that at the time of her disappearance, Sarah was investigating her biggest case yet.

Fenny knows that it's up to her to finish what Sarah had begun. As she and her friend Sam piece together the clues that Sarah left for them, they find themselves up against a decades-old mystery—one that links to the town's dark history. But is this binder a guide to finding Sarah—or are Fenny and Sam already too late?

 

My Thoughts

In Case I Go Missing was an intriguing YA mystery that focused on the disappearance of a friend as the other two friends in their friend group learn she was secretly investigating a case on her own. This book had quite a few twists and turns, but what intrigued me the most was the effect Sarah's disappearance had on the friendship of the two left behind and how it affected them going forward. Yes, there were a lot of secrets exposed in the town and the investigation was interesting, but I really enjoyed the human element behind Sarah's disappearance and how everyone reacted to it.

 

The story is told from Fenny's POV, but this is one time I wish we also had Sam's POV as I found his character to be quite as interesting as Fenny's and would have loved knowing his thoughts and insights. Fenny was quite capable and very determined to find out what happened to her friend, but I also loved how she wasn't reckless or stupid in her investigation, knowing when to keep her counsel, when to get the police involved and not keep clues to herself, and being smart. I really enjoyed the relationship between Fenny and Sam and am so, so, so glad the author didn't make their relationship a romantic one, but stuck to a platonic one as it would have felt so out of context for the story.  Both of them had major struggles going on and I am glad the author didn't ignore those struggles and took the time to focus on them and intertwine them with Sarah's investigation.

 

I became quite invested in this investigation and I have to credit the author's writing style for that. It was definitely a suspenseful murder mystery, but it was so much more than that as the clues Sarah left behind for Sam and Fenny allowed the author to reflect on the power of friendship and how well friends can really know each other.  This shone through the events and gave Fenny and Sam purpose as they found clues that only they would recognize and understood that Sarah was not necessarily ignoring them, but protecting them.  I did suspect quite early on what had happened, but that was okay. The author kept the tension high from pretty much the first page of the book and didn't let you relax until the last page and managed to pull all the different threads floating around into one interesting ending. It might seem a bit chaotic at times, but upon reflection, there was purpose behind everything in this book. There were multiple themes running through this book; loyalty, friendship, the unraveling of family legacy and secrets, neglect, murder, trust, the conflict between justice and revenge, loneliness, death, and the list goes on.  

 

Verdict

In Case I Go Missing was an unpredictable book and I was not sure in which direction it was going for most of it, but at the same time this was an accessible book and definitely written with the YA audience in mind.  Both the plot and character development were good, and the tension never really let up right from the first page. Yes, naturally there were some cliche moments and there were some tropes used, but they didn't interfere with the scope of the story nor did they interfere with the twists and turns of the story. I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a tension-filled mystery and I am looking forward to reading more works by this author.

 

Review: One Second Away by Rick Mofina

One Second Away

by Rick Mofina

Release Date: April 28, 2026

2026 Doubleday Canada

Softcover ARC; 400 Pages

ISBN: 978-0385701983

ASIN: B0FJ7YXY96

Audiobook: B0FJBDDJGZ

Genre: Fiction / Thriller

Source: Review copy from publisher

 

3.75 / 5 Stars

 

Summary

One sunny day in California, Jessie is hugging her nine-year-old son, Dylan, goodbye at the airport. He's travelling by himself, all the way across the country, to visit his father, Jessie's soon-to-be ex-husband, and his grandparents. Several hours later, Jessie gets a frantic call from Dylan's grandmother in New York. Dylan is missing.

In a second, Jessie's world turns upside down. The AirTag she'd stuck in his backpack says he's still at LAX. The airline insists that he was picked up at JFK by an elderly couple claiming to be his grandparents—but Jessie's in-laws insist they haven't seen him. Dylan has disappeared into thin air.

At the same moment, miles away, in Toronto, a train operator loses control of a subway train, and the fiery crash injures dozens of passengers. Jessie doesn’t know it yet, but this crash is inextricably linked to Dylan's disappearance. She has to find out how—and where her son is.

 

My Thoughts

One Second Away is one of those books that I read with a lot of trepidation as it took several of my fears and put them into one book: one, the fear of losing a child; two, the fear of being in train/plane collision; and three, having no control over any of it. This author grabbed your attention with a train crash right at the beginning of the book and pretty much never let up on the tension from that point on. 

 

While I enjoyed this quite a bit, I did struggle with Jessie as a main character.  I could certainly forgive her abrasiveness when wanting to know more information from the police about her missing child, but it irks me to no end when a person thinks they have a right to know everything and even barges in on a scene that is being criminally investigated and could compromise evidence. This was Jessie. Don't be Jessie. While brilliant when it comes to computers (something I'll come back to in a moment), she was not very good with personal relationships. While I understood her being abrasive with the police as they thought she was a suspect, she was like that with her friends as well. And for such a brilliant computer coder/designer, she spent most of her time running around the country like a chicken with her head cut off rather than doing any of her brilliant computer stuff. I know she had a team to help her, but why wouldn't she help them too? Why wouldn't she at least try to take some of the information herself and try to figure it out? She kept hinting at how it could be personal, so why share everything she had with others when they may not be trustworthy? I just didn't get it. 

 

Where this book really shines however, is the plot. This is not a character-driven story by any means, so the fast, tension-filled plot redeems the lack of character development. This is one of those books I kept picturing as a movie as it moved pretty quickly and the tension never let up. And I kept thinking of the movie Speed, how fun it was, but how silly some of the scenes were because you had to suspend belief for a lot of the movie. This is exactly the way it was in this book. Great action scenes, but you just had to go with it. I didn't find it difficult to figure out the culprit(s) in this book, but as I mentioned the character development was one-dimensional, at best.

 

Verdict

One Second Away was a fun, propulsive thriller that was heavy on tension and plot, but light on character and character development. You had to suspend belief quite a few times and just go with it, but that was okay, although I am sure those with more technological know-how might have different thoughts about this. I liked how the author managed to pull all the threads together even if I thought the reason was flimsy in the end. If you like fast-paced thrillers, this one might be for you. 

 

Review: Lost Worlds: How Humans Tried, Failed, Succeeded, and Built Our World by Patrick Wyman

Lost Worlds: How Humans Tries, Failed, Succeeded, and Built Our World

by Patrick Wyman

Release Date: May 5, 2026

2026 Harper

Ebook ARC; 464 Pages

ISBN: 978-0063256484

ASIN: B0FP9C8WB4

Audiobook: B0FPRNDH6J

Genre: Non-fiction / History / Anthropology

Source: Review copy from publisher

 

4 / 5 Stars

 

Summary

There’s a familiar story about us humans: we went from hunting and gathering to farming, wandering bands to villages and cities, clans and chieftains to states and kings. But Lost Worlds offers a new narrative of humanity’s deep history. Here beloved podcast host Patrick Wyman focuses on the 10,000-year span between the end of the Ice Age and the decline of the Bronze Age—the period when civilization as we understand it emerged, introducing social hierarchies, urbanism, complex political organizations, and the written word.

In this nuanced retelling, human progress is no longer a straight march from caves to cities: Farming didn’t always replace foraging, villages didn’t automatically spark agriculture, and cities didn’t necessitate rigid hierarchies. For thousands of years, humans merely improvised. By the end of the Bronze Age, the world had become unrecognizable: mammoths and giant sloths replaced by cattle and sheep, scattered nomadic bands replaced by millions living in cities, and farming on nearly every continent. Wyman argues that the rise of states and steady food production wasn’t inevitable, but rather, the outcome of countless choices that reshaped the planet and made us who we are today.

 

My Thoughts

Lost Worlds is one of those books that I found quite interesting, both from the anthropological perspective as well as the archaeological perspective. When I took archaeology classes in university, I was one of those people that never accepted the linear development of a civilization as absolute as humans are far too complex for that to exist everywhere and in every society.  I sort of liken it to child development where there are many different paths to how a child learns to walk and not every child takes the same path. The grown of civilization is much more complex and spread around the world, so it just didn't make sense to me that societies would develop along the same pathways. This book takes a look a complex political and social organizations and how human progress wasn't linear and didn't necessarily follow identical paths from foraging to villages to cities. 

 

It follows a 10000-year span from the end of the Ice Age to the decline of the Bronze Age and because of the scope of the work as well as the amount of civilizations involved, the author focuses on different societies for each chapter. This suited me quite well, but one must remain cognizant of the choices as well as they would support the reasoning for the book. Similar societies could have been chosen which would have supported a counter-argument, but the scope for that would have required a much longer book than this one. 

 

While I know quite a bit about Neolithic and Bronze Age Societies, there were some that were chosen with which I was not as familiar so I enjoyed learning about how they developed and how their societies functioned. Because the book focused on the agriculture side of the development, the author did spend a lot of time discussing the importance of foraging and producing enough food for the people of these developments, some of which turned to agriculture while others simply moved locations when the food sources dried up. I found it fascinating and did learn quite a bit about how societies survived. This was not a book about battles, kings and queens, emperors, etc..., but about how a civilization survived and the complex hierarchies and societies developed to ensure survival.  It was also a book that speculated as to the reasons why some societies turned more towards farming while others, just as complex, never developed beyond foraging. The author mentioned quite often it was a mistake to think these societies that didn't develop along the same lines weren't as complex as those that did and provided ample proof for his statements.

 

The anthropological and archaeological studies used to determine how these complex societies functioned ran through all the explanations given in this book and I enjoyed learning about a lot of the processes being used today, so different from my studies over thirty years ago.  Scientists have this ability to analyze information that was not previously available through new techniques and they are developed even newer ones all the time.  I found it fascinating when I read about how much information they could get off a single frozen body that was over 5000 years old just by analyzing DNA in the bones or from the stomach contents. And that was just the simpler stuff.  Bodies can give us cause of death, injuries sustained during a lifetime, illnesses sustained during a lifetime, where they grew up, where they traveled, and the list just goes on and on. And I have always know how much information one can get from a trash pit, but with the new techniques it must be mind-boggling today.  

 

Verdict

Lost Worlds was definitely an enjoyable read and I personally thought gave the reader a clearer picture into some complex societies of the past. It was not a book about individual people, battles, dominance, etc..., but more about how different societies developed differently from others, but still made it work. It was also to show that complex societies and hierarchies didn't grow linearly, but grew according to local needs and necessities.  Naturally, some societies were closer to others and would have had an impact on each other, but others were quite far away and developed at the same time, but still had different approaches and results. This is what I found particularly interesting with regards to this book. While there were some parts that were a bit repetitive, and I did feel as if the author was struggling with his reader audience, a struggle between the more rigorous scientific approach or a more layman's approach, and this could be seen in the book, there was still quite a lot to absorb and think about. I have not listened to this author's podcasts at this point, but I am probably going to start as I found his book quite interesting.