The Girl With the Green-Tinted Hair by Gavin Whyte

 

Genre: Middle Grade, Fable
Source: I purchased a copy

What a wonderful fable about growing up and changing.  A little boy wants a really close friend. It seems the only friend he can tell anything to is his favorite tree. He has a question he has been told he must answer, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ He goes to ask his friend the tree. He hears singing and as he gets closer he see a young girl with green-tinted hair. She is singing. They become friends.  The story takes the reader through each season and the lessons that life teaches us as we pass through each season of our own life.   Absolutely loved this book

Her One Mistake by Heidi Perks

 

Genre: Adult Suspense/Thriller
Source: I purchased a copy



This was an excellent story. I started it last night and got up early this morning to finish it. The story is told from two points of view, Charlotte and Harriet; and from two time periods “then” and “Now”
The “Now” time period takes place in a police station and the “Then” takes place before the events that led them to the police station. This was one talented author to be able to write this way and keep it so organized I never felt confused.

Charlotte is the mother of three children and Harriet is the mother of one. They have been best friends since before Harriet had Alice. One day Harriet asks Charlotte to watch Alice while she takes an accounting class. She has never let Alice out of her sight. Charlotte is more than happy to watch Alice. She takes them to their school’s fair. She sits with her youngest daughter while her two older children go on the “Jungle Run” bouncy house with Alice, only two of them come off. They look everywhere for her then call the police. Everyone is wondering how you can go to the fair with four children and only return with your own three.

Things are not necessarily what people think. Charlotte feels guilty about losing her best friends child. At the same time a young boy who had gone missing a year before,  his body has just been found. This makes Charlotte feel even more guilty. What if the same monster who took this young boy took Alice?

As Angela, the officer liaison assigned to Harriet and Brian spends more time with them, she notices things are not what they appear. Harriet doesn’t want to see or speak with her best friend Charlotte. Brian has become convinced that his wife is becoming forgetful and in danger of hurting herself. What is really going on and who took little Alice? Most importantly, will they ever find her?

This was one of those books that you hate to put down. However, I knew I had to sleep so I could actually finish the book. I didn’t predict the outcome. This author does a great job of leading you where they want you to go and then says, wait here is a clue you need to follow this way. I was tense all the way through the reading. As I read this I thought of three cases where I knew the missing child or the family. In two of those cases their child was found murdered and in the other case the child, thirty-six years later, still has not been found. I manned phones taking down information and clues for one of those cases. I know the feeling of watching parents like this go through this terror. I think that was why I was so drawn into this storyline. I know it kept me on the edge of my seat. If you want a story that will keep you rooted to your seat from beginning to end, then this is the book for you.

They Came For Utopia by Christopher Francis

Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction

Source: I received a copy from StoryOrigin. The opinions expressed here are my own.

This series has come a long way. We start the series with aliens invading the earth. The main character, Sheldon Hickory is infected and must fight to remain human.  Jump ahead to this final book and we have another infected person called the Queen. She is taking people like Sheldon and those who are pure humans and trying to infect them to follow her rules alone.  We have gone from a setting of a normal earth at the beginning of the series, to a world ravaged by war and destruction. Area 32 is trying to rebuild life on earth, underground. They are hoping they will one day be able to live above ground. In this book Sheldon is married with a baby on the way.  His humanity is grounded in that relationship.

We take a journey with him and his colleagues as they look for carbon for the air filters in Area 32. From there the tension and danger just keeps going up.  You read a bit and wonder who will survive and how. Then you have that temporary relief only to find the danger more intense.  It pulls you along and a quick pace.  This is another book I read in one sitting, because I couldn't put it down.

Once again  we have themes of survival, family, forgiveness, cherishing life.  The story leaves the reader feeling that whether in that world or our own, we can count on the good in humanity to provide us with hope.  I have loved all of this author's books.  I look forward to seeing what he comes up with next.  Who knows, maybe one day we will see this series in the movies. I would definitely buy tickets.