#TNReads: Real Quick Reviews for Lazy Readers featuring Cynthia Hand

How to even describe this book…? Let’s start with the basics. It was first published in Ukraine in 2007, and has just now been translated into English. It’s an undefinable mash of horror, sci-fi, philosophical fiction, YA Fantasy and magical realism…there’s really no one genre that I can pigeonhole it into. It’s suspenseful, darkly beautiful, confusing, otherworldly…it’s the weirdest book I’ve ever read and I can’t stop thinking about it.

The setting is like Harry Potter for college kids, but if Hogwarts was in a Soviet prisoner camp. Bad grades don’t result in points being deducted from Gryffindor; it means your grandma dies. Or your brother. Or anyone you love. The teens are blackmailed there against their will, and leaving isn’t an option. They don’t know what they’re studying, or what they’ll do when they graduate. Their teachers can manipulate reality and time, and give them impossible, nonsensical homework to complete. Main character Sasha is desperate to escape, but finds herself drawn to the potential knowledge and power that awaits those who are disciplined and fearless enough to grasp it. The brightest student in her class, Sasha must confront and redefine her perceptions of reality, fear, and what it means to be human.

Somebody smart just read it, so you can explain that mind melting ending to me.

In a twist on the classic Scrooge tale, Regina-King-esque Holly Chase fails to become a better person after her Christmas Eve visit with three ghosts. And then she dies. Her punishment for not taking the encounter seriously is to become The Ghost of Christmas Past indefinitely.
Now it is her fifth year as a part of Project Scrooge and Holly is bored by the unpredictability of her solitary existence. Until The Ghost of Christmas future (the ghost in charge of selecting the Scrooge every year) chooses a hot high school senior that seems like a male version of Holly. Telling herself that she doesn’t want him to fail, Holly can’t help but get more involved than she is allowed and inserts herself into Ethan’s life. Romance ensues. But, this is not a Christmas romance novel and that makes it a refreshing change for people that want to read a seasonal book without the Hallmark feels.

I’m a fan of Chanel Cleeton’s work. She writes romances that are funny and swoon-worthy with just the right touch of fantasy and sexiness. Fly with Me is the first in a series of contemporary romances about F16 fighter pilots. That should be enough to sell you, but if it isn’t, maybe it’ll help that her characters are in their 30’s so you get to skip the self-loathing and insecurity of the New Adult genre. Noah (call sign, Burn) and Jordan (don’t get too excited, shes a girl) fall in love in a whirlwind Vegas weekend that changes the course of their lives forever. I have limited military experience, so this peek into the lives of military couples was intriguing. Plus, really, fight pilots? You know you have a thing for Maverick and Goose. Don’t even lie. If you enjoy a fun, steamy, easy read, this series is for you.

Lorraine Anderson had a lot of plans, an early retirement with her husband, travels to exotic places and spending time with her grown sons. What she hadn’t planned on was finding her husband Charles enthusiastically boning her best friend. So what’s a scorned woman to do? Grab a passport and never look back. Lorraine heads off to Thailand with no real plan but escape and encounters people and places that will change her forever. Janice Horton is a fiction writer and world traveler. Having visited over 50 countries she enjoys the warm tropical ones the best and uses these setting for her romantic novels. The Backpacking Housewife at times reads like a memoir and at other times like a travel brochure. Either way, it’s an exotic journey that has me puting Thailand on my bucket list.