Tag: blog for book reviews

Review: Fire Breathes Stone and Storm by Teresa Hakaraia

~ likelystory18 ~ 1 Comment

Synopsis:

Sekya has spent her life making herself small.

Raised in an orphanage alongside Khala, Riva, and Lio, she has done whatever it takes to keep her found family together — even if it means surviving in Silk House, a pleasure house in the fire dominion of Eratari.

On the world of Thyra, power belongs to the Taniva: rare shapeshifters who carry the blood of the first elemental creatures.

Sekya is not one of them.

Then one night, watching from the balcony, Sekya sees the Queen return in phoenix-drake form, her Taniva wings cutting through the dark, her wounded son carried on her back.

Then time just stops.

The city is motionless.

The Queen hangs suspended above the lake, her great wings caught in mid-beat. And on her back, wounded and dying, Prince Kairon lifts his head — and turns to find Sekya, as though he knows exactly who stopped the world.

From that moment, Sekya’s attempt to remain unseen becomes impossible. She begins to share dreams with Kairon, drawn into a connection neither of them understands and neither can ignore.

When the Queen comes searching for the girl from her son’s visions, she finds more than Sekya. She finds four young people who carry something she cannot name: a strangeness in them, a power she can feel but not identify. Whether they are the answer to saving her son, or a threat to him, the Queen does not yet know.

What follows will change everything they thought they were.

Khala holds fire.
Riva holds water.
Lio holds stone.
And Sekya — Sekya can hold time itself.

Four orphans. Four powers that should not exist. And a world of four dominions holding a peace none of them fully trust.

But the thread between Sekya and Kairon runs deeper than magic. Deeper than blood. Deeper than anything either of them knows how to name.

Some connections cannot be undone.

Some costs cannot be survived.

Favorite Lines:

“What I do know…is that you are not some mistake Silk House made. You and your family love each other fiercely. You protect each other. You are Eratari.”

“Last night, I had not wanted to become another thing a man wanted from me. I wanted to be seen. Wanting, on its own, was too easy. Men did it all the time.”

“You are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. And you love me.”

“I only hope tomorrow finds us worthy of what comes after.”

My Opinion:

I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest opinion.

Fire Breathes Stone and Storm is the kind of fantasy that throws you into a fairly expansive world but keeps the emotional center of the story surprisingly intimate. At the center of the story is Sekya and the family she has created with fellow orphans Khala, Riva, and Lio. They have grown up relying on one another, and I liked that the story establishes those relationships as something worth protecting before their lives begin changing. As Sekya discovers there is more to her own identity and abilities than she realized, the world around the four of them starts opening up as well. What begins as a more personal story gradually introduces elemental powers, divided dominions, political tensions, and a mythology that suggests their lives are connected to something much older and more complicated than any of them know.

I thought Sekya’s struggle with belonging was one of the more interesting parts of her character. She’s fiercely protective of the people she considers family, but she doesn’t always extend that same confidence or sense of worth to herself. Her growing connection with Prince Kairon complicates things further, especially as the line between dreams and reality becomes increasingly difficult to understand. There is romance here, but I appreciated that Sekya’s story isn’t entirely defined by it. Her bond with the other orphans remains an important part of who she is, and there is an underlying tension between the life and family she already knows and the unfamiliar world that seems determined to claim her.

The world itself has a lot of moving pieces, and this definitely feels like the first installment of a series that plans to keep expanding. The elemental magic is only one part of it. There are four dominions with their own histories and conflicts, strange creatures, the mysterious Shell, and questions surrounding a sleeping god and the characters’ origins. I was particularly interested in the way the story touches on what happens when a society’s understanding of its own history is incomplete. Ariki’s experiences add another perspective to that idea, bringing prejudice and cultural identity into a story that could otherwise have remained focused primarily on magic and political conflict. There are still a lot of questions left unanswered, but I get the sense that many of the smaller details introduced here will become more important as the series continues.

The pacing does take its time, particularly as the story works to establish both its characters and a fairly complicated fantasy world. There were places where I thought things could move a little faster, but I also understand why so much groundwork was necessary for what appears to be a much larger story. I found myself more interested in the mysteries surrounding the characters and their connections to this world than in having every answer immediately. By the end, it becomes clear that what happens in this book is really only the beginning, so readers should go in expecting the start of an ongoing story rather than something that wraps everything up neatly.

Summary:

Overall, I thought Fire Breathes Stone and Storm was an interesting introduction to a fantasy world with plenty of room to grow. For me, the strongest aspect was the idea of these four young people who have already chosen one another as family finding themselves pulled toward identities and destinies they never asked for. The magic and mythology create the larger mystery, but it’s the questions of belonging, identity, and what makes someone your family that give the story its emotional foundation. There is clearly much more waiting to be uncovered about the Shell, the characters’ powers, and the history connecting everything together, and I think readers who enjoy settling into the beginning of a larger fantasy series will find plenty here to make them curious about what comes next. Happy reading!

Check out Fire Breathes Stone and Storm here!

 

Review: Constants by E.B. Miller

~ likelystory18 ~ Leave a comment

Synopsis:

Mark Robson is trapped in flux.

Every 18 minutes and 32 seconds he wakes up in a new reality, then dies.

The only clues to help him stop this crazed cycle and return home to his pregnant wife are the people, things, and events that reappear across worlds,

…or what he calls his constants.

Told in real time, with every chapter unfolding in a different world, Constants is a tightly-plotted exploration of reality, identity, and humanity’s search for meaning across the furthest reaches of our collective imagination.

Favorite Lines:

“That truth has to live somewhere, so for now it resides in his head.”

“Death was the exclamation mark at the close of that final inescapable argument of life’s utter meaninglessness.”

“You can’t leave me. You’re a constant.”

“Meaning takes shape from afar, so appreciate what you can.”

My Opinion:

I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest opinion.

Constants is one of those books that starts with a premise that sounds fairly easy to explain and then gets much, much stranger the longer you read (in a good way). Mark Robson is trapped in what he calls “flux,” where every eighteen minutes and thirty-two seconds he finds himself somewhere new, usually shortly before dying in some increasingly bizarre way. One moment he might be sitting in a psychiatrist’s office, the next he is somewhere completely removed from the world he knows. The only things he can really hold onto are the patterns that keep repeating, particularly his wife Lya, the exact eighteen-minute-and-thirty-two-second countdown, and eventually his troubled twin sister Alex. At first, I was mostly interested in figuring out the mechanics of what was happening to Mark, but the book gradually makes it clear that the bigger question isn’t really where he is. It’s why any of it is happening at all.

A lot of what makes the story work is how ridiculous and serious it manages to be at the same time. Some of Mark’s existences are genuinely funny or completely absurd, while others are violent, frightening, or surprisingly sad. The constant countdown gives even the strangest worlds a sense of urgency because Mark knows that no matter what he discovers, he only has a few minutes before everything disappears again. I also really liked the recurring therapy sessions with the Psychiatrist. Those scenes give the story somewhere to breathe and allow Mark to actually examine the theories he keeps developing about flux. Is he hallucinating? Dead? Jumping between dimensions? Is someone controlling him? The running percentages Mark and the Psychiatrist assign to the different possibilities were a clever way to show how their thinking evolves as the evidence changes.

What surprised me most was how much emotional weight the story eventually gives Mark’s relationships. Lya initially seems like his one safe place, but even that becomes complicated because the versions of her he encounters don’t necessarily share the same history he remembers. Meanwhile, his search for Alex becomes increasingly important as we learn more about their childhood, their mother’s death, Alex’s addiction, and Mark’s guilt over not being able to save the people he loves. Underneath all the strange worlds and increasingly elaborate deaths, Mark is someone who was struggling with emptiness long before flux began. He keeps believing that if he can just solve the mystery, find the right constant, or get home to Lya, he will finally feel whole. The book gradually starts questioning whether returning to his old life would actually fix anything.

The final portion is where Constants takes its biggest swing, and I think it will also be the part readers have the strongest opinions about. Without completely spoiling it, the answer to Mark’s situation changes the context of basically everything that came before it. The novel becomes openly metafictional towards the end and includes a confrontation that ends up being one of the most interesting parts of the novel for me because it asks whether suffering really needs to produce meaning at all, or whether that’s just another story we tell ourselves because we’re uncomfortable with the possibility that there may never be a satisfying answer (you’ll see when you get there!).

I also appreciated that the ending ultimately lands somewhere quieter than I expected. After spending so much of the book desperately searching for certainty, Mark doesn’t necessarily find it. Instead, he reaches something closer to accepting uncertainty itself. The idea that darkness and the unknown don’t automatically equal emptiness felt like a fitting conclusion for a character who has spent so much of his life terrified that nothing matters. Constants is definitely weird, philosophical, occasionally chaotic, and sometimes deliberately frustrating, but I think that’s also what makes it memorable. It takes a very strange science fiction premise and uses it to ask surprisingly human questions about why we’re here, whether anyone is watching, and whether a fleeting moment can still matter even when we know it has to end.

Summary:

Overall, Constants is a strange, ambitious blend of science fiction, dark comedy, existential fiction, and metafiction that follows a man trapped in a cycle of new realities that reset every eighteen minutes and thirty-two seconds. What initially feels like a mystery about multiverses and repeated deaths gradually becomes much more interested in depression, mortality, faith, memory, free will, and our need to believe there is some larger explanation for why we suffer.

I think this will work best for readers who enjoy high-concept speculative fiction that isn’t afraid to get philosophical, especially those who like stories about alternate realities, unreliable perceptions of reality, existential questions, and books that eventually become aware of themselves as stories. Readers who need very concrete worldbuilding rules or a straightforward explanation for every mystery may find parts of it frustrating, but readers willing to follow the book into increasingly strange territory will find a lot to think about after it’s over. Happy reading!

Check out Constants here!

 

Review: Bloom: Crisis in the Mediterranean Sea by Andrea Morani

~ likelystory18 ~ 1 Comment

Synopsis:

SOMETHING IS SPREADING BENEATH THE SURFACE

Along the Mediterranean coast, people are dying or falling ill. Marine life is vanishing. The sea, once a source of life, is becoming a silent threat. No one knows why—or how far it will go. Called in to investigate, Dr. Marco Fassi and his team of scientists uncover unsettling patterns that point to something vast and unseen, pulsing beneath the water. As the phenomenon spreads, they’re forced to confront the terrifying possibility that nature itself is no longer under control.

For fans of Michael Crichton, Franck Schätzing, and eco thrillers grounded in real science, BLOOM delivers a chilling, high stakes mystery where the natural world becomes the greatest threat. Propulsive and eerily plausible, this gripping novel will leave you questioning what lies beneath the surface

Favorite Lines:

“Nature is staggeringly intricate—and largely mysterious—so much so that countless forces, known or unknown, could trigger catastrophes that endanger humanity. This isn’t a doom- and-gloom perspective; it’s a reminder that we live on a fragile balance.”

“The fate of not just the Mediterranean, but perhaps all the world’s oceans, rested on their success.”

“From then on, he made sure to never take their love for granted again. “

My Opinion:

I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest opinion.

Bloom feels like a mix of environmental thriller, disaster novel, and science-heavy speculative fiction. The setup immediately pulled me in because it starts with something that feels believable: the Mediterranean Sea warming, marine ecosystems shifting, and strange deaths beginning to happen around the coastline. The early chapters in Sardinia are honestly the strongest part of the book for me. The scenes with Sylvie and her parents on vacation create this calm, almost sentimental atmosphere before everything turns terrifying in a matter of minutes. The sudden collapse on the water and the confusion surrounding the dead fish and strange smell genuinely felt unsettling.

What I appreciated most was that Morani clearly knows the science behind what is being written about. The book dives deeply into harmful algal blooms, phytoplankton, saxitoxins, synthetic biology, and environmental collapse, but it usually does so through characters who are actively trying to solve the crisis. Marco’s sections especially carry the story once the scope expands beyond Italy. He’s written as a scientist first, and sometimes that makes him emotionally distant, but I actually thought that worked for the character. His family issues with Jasmine and his guilt over balancing science with real life gave the story a more human center amid all the technical discussions and global panic.

The scale of the crisis becomes surprisingly massive as the novel continues. What starts as isolated deaths and strange marine behavior escalates into continent-wide fear, collapsing tourism, political tension, ecological disaster, and desperate scientific experimentation. I liked that Morani didn’t keep the story small. The sections aboard the Seagull and the debates about drastic containment measures made the book feel bigger and more urgent as it went on. There are moments where the novel almost reads like a cinematic pandemic thriller, except the threat comes from the ocean instead of a virus.

That said, this definitely leans more toward “science thriller” than fast-paced action novel. The scientific explanations are frequent and detailed, sometimes to the point where the pacing slows down considerably. There are stretches where characters explain theories, toxins, genetics, or environmental systems for pages at a time. Personally, I didn’t mind most of it because the author clearly put real thought into the plausibility of the disaster, but readers looking for nonstop suspense may struggle with those sections. The dialogue can also feel a little formal at times, especially during scientific discussions where nearly every character sounds highly academic.

Still, I found Bloom genuinely interesting because it feels sincere. Morani clearly cares about the environmental themes and the science behind them, and that passion carries the book through its weaker moments. The story works best when it balances human fear with scientific uncertainty, showing how fragile modern systems really are when nature starts behaving unpredictably. It’s the kind of novel that makes you think twice the next time you hear about warming oceans or harmful algal blooms in the news.

Summary:

Overall, Bloom is a science-heavy environmental thriller about a deadly marine catastrophe spreading through the Mediterranean Sea. The novel blends disaster fiction, biology, ecology, and speculative science with family drama and global political tension. It starts strong with eerie coastal deaths and gradually expands into a large-scale international crisis involving toxins, algal blooms, and desperate scientific intervention. Readers who enjoy Michael Crichton-style scientific thrillers, environmental fiction, outbreak stories, or speculative eco-disaster novels will probably get the most out of it. Happy reading!

Check out Bloom: Crisis in the Mediterranean Sea here!

 

Review: Intrinsic by W.H.B.

~ likelystory18 ~ Leave a comment

Synopsis:

Christopher Franklin, the proud and only son of a New York literary royalty, from birth he is built and destined to nothing less than greatness. One day, out of disappointment, he makes the dangerous decision to change and turn into someone who is not. He consciously decides to entangle his life with a miserable soul. Abruptly he learns his first lesson from life, miserable souls only bring misery, with one act he will lose everything, in one evening he will be reduced to nothing. No greatness, he becomes a nobody.

Years passed by and Chris settled into his life as a taxi driver, Brooklyn is home, and the miserable soul is still around him and has gotten more miserable with the years. This time is different, he is a dad of two beautiful daughters with unconditional love, their safety is his new purpose in life, nothing and no one is above his girls. He also discovers a dear friendship with his neighbor and confidante, a place of solace.

One night, without warning, a triggered chain reaction will take Chris into a ride of a lifetime, nothing will be ever the same, lies and secrets are uncovered, he was played and fooled, he didn’t know anything about who he is and, once again, he is reduced to nothing, rock bottom is where he belongs. Suddenly, out of nowhere, greatness at last, he has the privilege to show who he is, royalty. He will rise while making sure others will fall, miserably.

Life is fair, but not for all.

Favorite Lines:

“Life is fair—but not for all.”

“Pay it forward. At some point we all need help.”

“No matter what, things have to return to where they naturally belong—a universal rule.”

“I don’t predict the future. I don’t want to, and I don’t need to. I am simply ready and prepared for whatever it throws at me. The only thing I know is no matter what it brings, I will always be the one who decides when and how it’s going to end. Simple control. Control is when you never fail to punctuate the present moment.”

My Opinion:

I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest opinion.

Intrinsic immediately stands out as a very ambitious and emotionally driven novel. From the opening pages, the book throws readers into a vividly detailed version of New York City that feels alive with movement, history, and personality, and there’s an unmistakable sincerity behind the writing that kept me engaged. The narration is rich and reflective, almost cinematic at times, and the story quickly establishes itself as something much larger than a straightforward family drama. It’s interested in morality, destiny, identity, sacrifice, and what truly defines a good person, all through the life of Chris Franklin, a taxi driver carrying far more emotional weight and history than people around him realize.

What stood out most to me was Chris himself. He’s written almost like an old-fashioned idealized protagonist: endlessly kind, thoughtful, generous, intelligent, patient, hardworking, devoted to his children, and seemingly able to connect deeply with everyone he encounters. In lesser hands that could have made him feel flat, but the novel balances it somewhat by surrounding him with emotional tension and instability, especially within his marriage to Mary. The family scenes were honestly the strongest part of the book for me because they feel emotionally loaded even during ordinary conversations. There’s this constant undercurrent of volatility in the household where Chris is trying to preserve warmth and tenderness for his daughters while navigating Mary’s anger and emotional instability. Those scenes created much more tension than the larger philosophical passages.

The book also has a huge sense of nostalgia attached to New York City. The opening chapters almost function as a love letter to the city in the late 2000s and to a version of urban life that feels increasingly distant. Taxi driving, neighborhood delis, late-night cigarettes on fire escapes, crowded avenues, old bookstores, political conversations about Obama’s election, family-owned buildings, and references to pre-smartphone daily life all combine to create a very specific atmosphere. Even when the writing style becomes (intentionally) overly elaborate, there’s still a genuine affection for the setting that makes the world feel lived in. The flashbacks to Chris’s privileged teenage years also help explain why he feels emotionally divided between who he used to be and who he became.

What stayed with me most after finishing Intrinsic was how emotionally sincere it felt. The book wears its heart on its sleeve in a way that feels increasingly rare, especially in modern fiction that often leans detached or overly cynical. Chris’s love for his children, his constant desire to protect the people around him, and the lingering sense that something larger is shaping the course of his life all give the story a strong emotional core. Even during quieter moments, there’s a feeling that the novel is building toward something meaningful. It’s the kind of book that is less focused on rushing from plot point to plot point and more interested in exploring the emotional weight behind the choices people make and the lives they build.

Summary:

Overall, Intrinsic feels like a character-driven literary drama disguised as a philosophical thriller. It’s ambitious, emotional, reflective, and there’s enough heart underneath it that I stayed invested in Chris and his family. Readers who enjoy emotionally heavy family sagas, morally driven protagonists, reflective narration, and stories centered around sacrifice, destiny, and identity will probably connect strongly with this one. It feels less interested in realism and more interested in exploring what kind of person someone chooses to become when life repeatedly tests them. Happy reading!

Check out Intrinsic here!

Review: Talisman: A Time Travel Mystery by Tom Catalano

~ likelystory18 ~ Leave a comment

Synopsis:

A time travel mystery. Prominent archaeologist Henri Rutherford and his young protégé discover an ancient skeleton clutching a mysterious device. They have no idea what it is or where it came from. When they start repeating the same day over and over again they know they have something that could change the world–for better or worse. Will they use the time travel device for the betterment of society–or their own gain? Can they keep it from being stolen? Can they avoid the government agent willing to do whatever is necessary to get it and rule the world? Their lives are in danger and the future is in jeopardy. The race is on, and time is running out.

Get ready to depart on an exciting time travel journey through mystery, suspense, greed, murder, treachery, paranoia, heartache, and love!

Favorite Lines:

“If luck wasn’t volunteered, it was your right to make it. Or take it.”

“Discoveries are not meant for the discoverer. They are meant for humanity. Nothing can be gained by keeping it a secret.”

“And the future? Well, the future would stay right where it belonged. Unknown and always ahead of them.”

My Opinion:

I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest opinion.

Talisman feels very much like an old-school science fiction adventure in the best possible way. From the opening archaeological dig on a remote Caribbean island, the novel immediately leans into mystery, danger, and curiosity. When Professor Rutherford and his student assistant John Shaw uncover a strange gold object clutched in the hand of a skeleton, the story quickly shifts from straightforward archaeological fiction into something much stranger involving time distortion, greed, murder, and alternate realities. The pacing moves fast right from the start, and unlike a lot of modern sci-fi that gets buried in technical explanations, this book keeps its focus on suspense and momentum.

What worked best for me was how readable it all was. The writing style is simple and direct, but it keeps the story moving constantly. The early sections involving Rutherford were especially strong because he’s such a morally slippery character. He starts as a respected academic but slowly reveals himself to be selfish, manipulative, and increasingly paranoid once the artifact is discovered. The repeated scenes where reality itself begins shifting around him genuinely create a creepy atmosphere. There’s a strong The Twilight Zone influence throughout the novel, which Catalano openly acknowledges in the front matter, and honestly that comparison fits. A lot of the book reads like an expanded sci-fi mystery episode from that era, complete with moral consequences attached to human greed and ambition.

John ends up becoming a much more likable emotional anchor for the story than Rutherford. He has that classic earnest, intelligent protagonist energy that works well in adventure fiction like this. Hannah was another character I enjoyed because she balances out some of the more arrogant personalities around her and adds a grounded emotional presence to the story. The dialogue can occasionally feel a little theatrical or overly explanatory, but it also adds to the nostalgic feel of the novel. This doesn’t read like hyper-modern sci-fi trying to sound gritty or cynical. It feels intentionally sincere and pulpy in a way that reminded me of older speculative fiction paperbacks.

The biggest strength of the book is probably its imagination. Once the time travel elements fully emerge, the story becomes increasingly unpredictable and ambitious. There’s a genuine sense that anything could happen, and the novel clearly enjoys playing with paradoxes, altered timelines, and questions about fate.

Summary:

Overall, Talisman is a fun, fast-moving sci-fi mystery that feels written by someone who genuinely loves classic speculative fiction. It blends archaeology, suspense, murder, and time travel into an entertaining story that rarely slows down for long. Readers looking for hard science fiction packed with technical detail may want something deeper, but readers who enjoy imaginative, accessible time travel stories with strong mystery elements will probably have a good time with this one. It especially feels suited for people who miss the style of older science fiction where the mystery itself mattered more than realism. Happy reading!

Check out Talisman: A Time Travel Mystery here!

 

Review: A Moment’s Surrender by John Burt

~ likelystory18 ~ 2 Comments

Synopsis:

A Moment’s Surrender follows freshman writing instructor Paul Bishop in the aftermath of the murder of his former best friend, the renowned poet Tom Corbin. Haunted by guilt and bound by a devastating secret, Paul takes it upon himself to care for Tom’s terminally ill widow, Susan. But the truth he withholds — that Tom had planned to leave Susan for another woman, Paul’s own long-ago lover Rachel Lake — draws Paul into a painful triangle of loyalty, betrayal, and unresolved desire. Caught between the two women, Paul must navigate a web of grief and deception that threatens to undo them all.

Favorite Lines:

“In fact, they depended on each other and couldn’t quite be themselves without the challenge of the other.”

“Poetry was not just about feelings. It was not just a representation of something in the world, or an argument, or a short narrative told in heightened language, or a decorated moral proposition. It was an occasion to know something through the poem that you can’t know in any other way.”

“He did not want to want what he wanted, but he wanted it anyway, and every promise he made to himself divided him from himself, so that what he wanted to be and what he actually was faced off against each other.”

My Opinion:

I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest opinion.

There’s a heaviness hanging over A Moment’s Surrender almost immediately, and not just because it opens with a murder investigation. The real weight of the novel comes from emotional paralysis, from the way people spend years avoiding truths they already know about themselves. The story follows Paul Bishop, an adjunct writing instructor whose former best friend, celebrated poet Tom Corbin, is found murdered after secretly planning to leave his wife Susan for Rachel Lake, Paul’s own former lover. Paul knows the truth about where Tom was headed before he died, but instead of exposing it, he starts lying almost instinctively, first to the police, then to Susan, and eventually to himself. What makes the novel work is that it understands lying not as villainy but as cowardice, hesitation, shame, and the desperate hope that maybe reality can somehow be delayed if nobody says it out loud.

What surprised me most about this book is how emotionally layered it is beneath all the literary and philosophical discussion. This is very much a novel about intellectual people trying to think their way out of grief, guilt, desire, and regret, only to discover that intelligence does not make anyone emotionally brave. Paul especially feels painfully real in that regard. He’s someone who once imagined a larger, more meaningful life for himself and now finds himself stuck grading freshman papers in Reno, circling old failures and unresolved relationships. The sections involving Rachel are some of the strongest in the novel because she represents both artistic intensity and emotional danger in a way that still unsettles Paul years later. Susan, though, quietly becomes the emotional center of the book. Her love for Tom, even knowing exactly who he is, gives the novel much of its sadness. There’s a recurring idea throughout the story that the deepest truth about a person may not be the worst thing they’ve done, but the struggle they can never fully overcome, and I think the book handles that idea with a surprising amount of compassion.

The academic setting also feels authentic in a way a lot of literary fiction does not. Burt clearly understands the strange mixture of ego, insecurity, idealism, exhaustion, and performance that exists inside literary academia. The conversations about poetry, philosophy, religion, and aesthetics are not there just to sound smart. They genuinely reveal character and worldview. At times the novel almost reads like a long argument between competing ways of understanding art and morality. Paul wants poetry to mean something transcendent while Corbin increasingly sees art as tangled up in power, ambition, and self-interest. Rachel falls somewhere darker and more dangerous in between. These conversations can be dense, but they rarely felt empty to me because they are always tied back to emotional wounds the characters are carrying. Even the landscape descriptions, especially around Pyramid Lake and the desert highways, feel connected to the emotional isolation of the characters rather than existing purely for atmosphere.

This is definitely a slow, reflective novel. Readers looking for a fast-moving mystery may struggle because the murder becomes less important than the emotional wreckage surrounding it. There are sections where the philosophical discussions and internal reflections run long, and occasionally the book risks becoming too enamored with its own intelligence. But honestly, that excess also feels true to these characters. These are people who intellectualize because they do not know how else to survive themselves. The style fits the emotional world of the story.

Summary:

Overall, I thought A Moment’s Surrender was ambitious, thoughtful literary fiction that trusts its readers to sit with discomfort instead of racing toward easy catharsis. It’s a novel about failed courage, unresolved longing, self-deception, and the stories people construct to make their lives bearable. More than the murder itself, what lingered with me afterward was the sadness of watching people recognize exactly what is broken inside themselves while still remaining unable to change. This will probably work best for readers who enjoy psychologically dense literary fiction, emotionally complicated relationship dynamics, and novels deeply interested in art, memory, morality, and the gap between who people want to be and who they actually are. Happy reading!

Check out A Moment’s Surrender here!

 

Review: At Death’s Door by Allen Rebot

~ likelystory18 ~ Leave a comment

Synopsis:

One wrong turn. Seven locked doors. No way out.

When Kayla wakes up in a silent, snow-covered forest void of all life, her only sanctuary is a mysterious, pristine manor nestled among the trees. Inside, the coffee is hot and the decor is lavish, but the inhabitant is nowhere to be found. The only thing more unsettling than the silence is the hallway of doors, each etched with the image of a different beast.

At the end of the hall stands the “Gnarled Door,” a mass of intertwined roots that refuses to budge.

When Kayla finds a silver skeleton key, she inadvertently begins a descent into a series of waking nightmares. Each door she unlocks transports her into a twisted reality born from her own deepest fears: a claustrophobic dollhouse guarded by a predatory jack-in-the-box, a schoolhouse haunted by shadows of her past, and a museum where history refuses to stay dead.

As the manor begins to rot around her, Kayla realizes she isn’t just a guest; she’s a participant in a trial for her soul. To escape the “Forest of Souls” and avoid becoming a shadow herself, she must collect every key and face the truth of how she arrived at Death’s door.

In this house, your nightmares aren’t just in your head-they’re right behind the next door.

Favorite Lines:

“Trees, long since made barren by winter, stood around me like vultures waiting for their next meal to breathe their last”

“The owner of this place might be weird, but their drink-making skills are impeccable.”

“I refused to acknowledge the lantern-like eyes that watched us from behind the trees.”

My Opinion:

I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest opinion.

There’s a very specific kind of horror book that feels like it was written by someone who genuinely loves being scared. Not in a polished, prestige horror way where everything is symbolic and emotionally restrained, but in the “what nightmare can I throw at the reader next?” kind of way. At Death’s Door absolutely falls into that category.

This book wastes almost no time dropping you into danger. Kayla wakes up stranded in a freezing forest with no memory of how she got there, finds an isolated house in the middle of nowhere, and things immediately begin spiraling into increasingly surreal nightmare logic. What starts as eerie haunted-house horror turns into something much stranger and meaner. The dollhouse section especially is where the book really hooked me. Once the scale starts changing and Kayla ends up trapped inside the dollhouse itself, the story goes from creepy to genuinely claustrophobic.

One thing I appreciated was that the horror never really sits still. A lot of indie horror novels introduce one cool concept and stretch it thin for 250 pages. This one keeps escalating. Every room feels like its own contained nightmare with different rules and imagery. The toy room, the jack-in-the-box, the cardboard canyon, the doll family at the dinner table… it all feels very visual and cinematic. You can tell the author has a strong imagination for creature design and environmental horror. Some of the imagery honestly feels like it would translate perfectly into an indie horror game.

The jack-in-the-box scenes were probably the standout for me. There’s something deeply unsettling about the way childish things are described throughout the book. The toys don’t just become scary because they move. The descriptions linger on textures, sounds, proportions, weird smiles, and movement patterns in a way that feels intentionally uncomfortable. The scraping sound of the jester dragging its box around became one of those recurring horror details that instantly creates dread every time it comes back.

I also liked that Kayla reacts like an actual person most of the time. She panics, swears, bargains with herself, makes dumb choices, then adapts anyway. She doesn’t suddenly become hyper-competent just because the plot needs her to survive. There’s a messy, exhausted quality to her narration that helps the book feel grounded even when the story gets completely surreal.

The pacing is probably one of the book’s strongest qualities. Chapters move quickly and almost always end with either a reveal, a new threat, or a shift in environment. It makes the book very easy to binge. I kept telling myself “one more chapter” because the structure naturally pushes you forward.

The strongest thing the novel does is maintain this feeling that the world itself is hostile and wrong. Not just haunted. Wrong. The house doesn’t operate on normal logic, the toys feel malicious in an almost fairy-tale way, and the constant shifts in scale and reality make everything feel unstable. It reminded me a little of survival horror games where every new area introduces a completely different flavor of fear.

Summary:

Overall, if you like atmospheric horror with creepy objects, distorted reality, monstrous toy imagery, shifting environments, and relentless tension, there’s a good chance this will work for you. It feels like a haunted maze built by someone who grew up loving horror movies, escape rooms, creepy pasta, and nightmare-fueled video games. Happy reading!

Check out At Death’s Door here!

Monthly Features – April 2026

~ likelystory18 ~ Leave a comment

SETTUP by TK Thoits

I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest opinion.

Synopsis: Respected neurologist and researcher Stella Murray was confident the FDA would approve the experimental medication based on its demonstrated superior efficacy. Knowing a serious side effect would not derail the approval process, she reports that a patient had a significant reaction to the investigational drug.

Shortly thereafter, Grand Rapids Detective Troy Evans is called to investigate the suspicious death of a Site Monitor who, he learns, worked with Murray. Evans asks Murray to educate him on the unfamiliar world of medical research. She discloses that conducting investigational drug studies has become a multibillion-dollar industry, with power brokers providing more oversight than the government.

When Murray informs Evans that a second Site Monitor has been killed, they team up to take down the corruption that is mercilessly burying unwelcome researchers and results of a promising drug trial.

Summary: Overall,  SETTUP is a fast, detail-heavy medical thriller that starts in the ER and expands into a layered story involving clinical trials, corporate pressure, and a criminal subplot. The medical realism is strong, and the tension builds as the threads begin to connect. The tone can shift a bit—especially with the assassin storyline—but it adds a darker, more unsettling edge. Best for readers who like medical dramas with conspiracy elements and multiple POVs rather than a single, straightforward narrative. 

See the full review here: SETTUP
Purchase here

The Knight’s Last Stand by Bear Pardun

I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest opinion.

Synopsis: In a world where gods walk among mortals and divine tyranny crushes the innocent, one knight’s investigation into ritual murders uncovers a conspiracy that threatens to consume an entire city. Commander Victus Andreas discovers that the seemingly random cult killings in Lindly are part of a far darker plan—the dark elven goddess Lestar seeks to harvest the souls of every citizen to feed her master’s insatiable hunger for power.
When Victus returns from his annual pilgrimage to find his city overrun by disguised dark elves posing as holy inquisitors, he must rally a small band of loyal soldiers, his adopted son Aris, and unlikely allies to stand against overwhelming odds. As ancient magic tears through the city and divine politics threaten to destroy everything he’s sworn to protect, Victus faces an impossible choice: save his people or preserve his own soul.
With breathtaking battles, complex characters wrestling with duty and honor, and a magic system that explores the cost of power, Battle of Lindly launches an epic fantasy series that challenges the very nature of divine authority. In Bear Pardun’s richly imagined world, heroes are forged not by destiny, but by the courage to defy gods themselves.

Summary:  Overall, I found this book to be a gritty, sincere fantasy that leans hard into classic themes of honor, sacrifice, and legacy. The writing had an emotional core — especially the father-son relationship and the relentless sense of duty.  If you like fantasy that is sincere about honor, duty, and sacrifice, then this book could be for you. 

See the full review here: The Knight’s Last Stand
Purchase here

Review: Silence Beneath Fire by Magda Mizzi

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Synopsis:

Silence can heal. Or it can be where danger learns your name.

Annie thought she had saved Jude from his past. But the world around them has fallen into a quiet that feels wrong—too still, too watchful. As she tries to protect what remains of him, guilt follows her for everything he’s endured, and every choice she makes could cost them both.

Moving through hostile territory, they uncover secrets, betrayals, and a threat years in the making. From the ruins of Kooragang to experiments gone terribly wrong, survival will demand more than courage. It will demand trust.

But trust has a price.

As danger closes in, Annie and Jude must rely on each other in ways that strip away fear, pretence, and the distance they’ve kept between them. What begins as a fight to survive becomes something deeper—a reckoning that will redefine loyalty, love, and what it truly means to be human.

Favorite Lines:

“You don’t have to apologize…Not for being alive.”

“That kind of love didn’t flinch. It held on through silence, through fear, through ever kind of ruin. She remembered thinking, even back then, that maybe she wanted something like that—not the drama, not the war-torn madness, but the truth of it. The knowing. Someone who saw her, really saw her, and didn’t look away.”

“She wanted a love that endured fire—and came back whole.”

My Opinion:

I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest opinion.

From the first few pages, you’re dealing with a world where things have gone very, very wrong—corporate experimentation, engineered children, a virus that’s reshaped humanity into something violent and unrecognizable. And instead of slowly explaining it all, the story just trusts you to catch up. It works more often than not.

At the center is Jude, though it takes a minute to fully understand what that means. He’s not just a survivor. He’s something altered. Enhanced, maybe. Damaged, definitely. The book slowly pulls that apart instead of dumping it on you all at once, which keeps him interesting even when the plot starts moving fast.

Annie, on the other hand, is the anchor. She’s practical, sharp, and just grounded enough to keep the story from drifting too far into the sci-fi side of things. The dynamic between them is probably the strongest part of the book. There’s history there, but also a lot unsaid. You feel it more in what they avoid than what they actually talk about.

The pacing is quick, but not careless. There’s a constant sense of movement—walking, hiding, running, surviving—and it gives the book this restless energy. Even the quieter scenes, like the campsite conversations, don’t really feel safe. They feel temporary. Like something is always about to go wrong. And usually it does.

The infected—VFPs—aren’t exactly reinventing the genre, but they don’t need to. They’re effective because the story doesn’t overcomplicate them. They’re fast, violent, and unpredictable. That’s enough. The real tension comes from everything around them: the collapsing infrastructure, the isolation, and especially the people who are still trying to control what’s left of the world.

That’s where the book starts to open up.

The “Chimera” concept adds another layer that pushes this beyond a straightforward survival story. Jude isn’t just surviving the virus—he’s tied to its origin in a way that feels personal and unsettling. The reveal isn’t subtle, but it lands because of how it reframes everything you’ve already seen.

There’s also a noticeable shift once they reach the island. Up until then, it feels like a survival story with emotional undercurrents. After that, it becomes something heavier. Trust, fear, community, and how quickly all of that can collapse. The sequence there is chaotic in a way that feels intentional. You don’t get clean resolutions. You get panic, mistakes, and consequences.

Ultimately, it is very clear that this is a world where no one really gets to rest.

Summary:

Overall, this is a fast-moving post-apocalyptic survival story with strong character dynamics and a sci-fi edge, following two survivors navigating a virus-ravaged world while uncovering a deeper conspiracy tied to one of them. Happy reading!

Check out Silence Beneath Fire here!

Review: The Brighter the Light, The Darker the Shadow by Verlin Darrow

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Synopsis:

Kade Tobin needs every bit of his wisdom as the leader of a rural spiritual community to remain true to his core values as murders pile up around him. Drawn into helping to solve the mystery by a sheriff’s detective, Kade sorts through the array of quirky seekers on the community’s land, only to end up as the defendant in a suspense-filled trial. He struggles to maintain a stance of kindness while he endures bullies in the jail, a vengeful DA, and the pending judgment of twelve strangers. As the prosecution parades witness after witness, the mounting evidence against Kade becomes alarmingly damning. If he were a juror, Kade believes he might vote to convict himself at this stage of his trial. But he also trusts the universe. Kade remains confident that a force greater than himself–and the justice system–has other plans for him. Or does it?

Favorite Lines:

“Most of us humans are burdened by the tyranny of continuity—the ongoing, sequential storylines we feel compelled to construct. What about directly experiencing life—letting it tell us about itself?”

“The world isn’t going to adapt to suit us. We need to transform ourselves to match it as best as we can in order to step away from an adversarial relationship with it.”

“The truth is what matters…If telling it brings up feelings for me, it’s my job to manage those internally. I’ve found that when I avoid something uncomfortable, it just sets up a day of reckoning. It usually ends up worse than whatever the original experience would’ve been.”

My Opinion:

I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest opinion.

This one opens in a way that feels deceptively calm. A man, his dog, a quiet morning in a spiritual community tucked into the Santa Cruz mountains. Then there’s a body. And just like that, whatever sense of peace existed gets pulled apart.

What makes this book interesting isn’t really the murder itself. It’s the lens we’re forced to look through. Kade Tobin isn’t your typical protagonist. He’s not scrambling, panicking, or even especially reactive. He’s… observing. Processing. Filtering everything through this spiritual framework that’s supposed to keep him grounded, even when something objectively horrific is sitting a few feet away.

And honestly, that tension is the most compelling part of the book. There’s this constant push and pull between detachment and reality. Kade wants to “experience everything fully,” but when faced with something truly brutal, he flinches like anyone else. That contradiction feels very human, even if the surrounding philosophy sometimes drifts into abstract territory.

The community itself is where things really start to take shape. The Brethren of Congruence is filled with people who are, for lack of a better word, messy. Not in a dramatic, over-the-top way, but in a very believable one. You’ve got people running from past lives, people trying to fix themselves, people who probably shouldn’t be living in a secluded group dynamic at all. The interviews with each member are where the book slows down, but also where it gains texture.

Some of those conversations feel intentionally frustrating. Characters dodge questions, spiral into philosophy, or fixate on things that seem completely irrelevant to a murder investigation. At first it reads like distraction, but over time it starts to feel more like a point. These people don’t operate on the same wavelength as the detective, and that disconnect creates a kind of quiet friction throughout the story.

Detective Cullen is a solid counterbalance. He’s grounded, practical, and increasingly irritated by everything he’s dealing with. His skepticism gives the story structure when it threatens to drift too far into introspection. The dynamic between him and Kade works because neither fully respects the other’s worldview, but they still need each other to move forward.

This is not a traditional mystery. If you’re expecting tight plotting and constant forward momentum, this might feel slow. The narrative is more interested in ideas, personalities, and internal dialogue than in building suspense in a conventional way.

That said, there’s something quietly effective about how it all unfolds. The sense that something is off, not just with the crime but with the people around it, lingers in the background. And the deeper you get into the community, the less certain everything feels.

It’s less about solving a murder and more about understanding the environment it happened in.

Summary:

Overall, this is a slow-burn, character-driven mystery set inside a secluded spiritual community. The story leans heavily into philosophy, interpersonal dynamics, and psychological nuance rather than fast-paced plot. Readers who enjoy introspective or philosophical fiction that feature more character studies than action may enjoy this book. Happy reading!

Check out The Brighter the Light, The Darker the Shadow here!