Review: Shadow Moon

Shadow Moon by Alexandra Sokoloff
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Short chapters with alternating POV of the main characters. also jumping in time but clearly marked, so you do not have to guess. Some nice twists. Ending is ok, but for me a low point, although I like it that there was not too much of a vigilante-killing-spree and a few things went according to law.
Great scenery in this book.
Reasonably fast read, it took my longer as I paused to binge Vampire Diaries on Netflix - starting at S01E01, as I could not get into the S03 where stopped seeing it years ago.
As most of the books from this series felt like it could have been the end to the series, I will not guess wether there will be more, but hope so. Also there seem to be talks or even solid plans for a TV-series, yeah!
Not as much a mirror image for the current (2018/2019) USofA like the last book, at least not for me, but I am not so much into Militia and Conspiracy-Theories, so I may be wrong.
Some good use of internet and current technology, I will not spoil it, only to say there was a nice decision from one of the minor characters.

Solid 5 star, highly recommended, would not consider this a standalone, too much background story would be missing, strongly suggest reading all the books in the series in order. One of my favourite series, hands-down-ever. For more Info read my reviews of the other 5 books in the series.

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Review: Geliebtes Opfer: Sex & Crime 6

Geliebtes Opfer: Sex & Crime 6 by Harry Hold
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Good case, a little complicated romance, less sex than in the other books (if any, not sure for this book). Private live was ok with a nice twist.
Rather short like the other books, like a Novella. Got this for free as I was informed by lesen.net email, which was also the case for first books from this series I read. Normal price a just a bit too high (2,49 for a few short hours reading time, a rainy afternoons worth).
Recommended.

German, imho no translation to English.

Deshalb hier die deutsche Kritik:
Guter Fall, ein wenig komplizierte Romanze, weniger Sex als in den anderen Büchern (wenn überhaupt, nicht mehr sicher ob in diesem Buch überhaupt welcher war). Privatleben war ok mit einem netten Twist.
Wie die anderen Bücher sehr kurz, eher eine Novella. Habe dies hier kostenlos bekommen, nachdem ich eine Infomail von lesen.net dazu erhalten hatte, das war damals auch der Fall, als ich die ersten Bücher der Serie aufgrund der Mail fand. Den normalen Preis finde ich etwas hoch (2,49 Eur für wenige Stunden Lesezeit, für einen verregneten Nachmittag).
Empfehlung von mir.

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Review: The Stranger You Seek

The Stranger You Seek by Amanda Kyle Williams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It was good, but not quite 5 star, too many little things happening beside, some could have been cut and the story been more straight and suspenseful.
Then again very good twists, some 180 degrees, some going sideways. Most I did not guess.
Recommended, have the next two books and will read them when I feel like it, each just under 5 Eur (ebook) and there will be no more, as the author is dead, which is one of the reasons I like to read her - sometimes I read too many books from one author, reading a few back2back and ending up getting too much even from a good author. Cannot happen here, with just 3 books.

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Review: Persepolis Rising

Persepolis Rising by James S.A. Corey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Waited for this to get cheaper than Eur 10 (Us$ 11) as an ebook, and it finally did.
And also waited for the next book (which was delayed a few months) to be published, as I saw mentioned in some comment, that #07 is not really ending, instead it is seamlessly moving into the next book and you will be left thinking what will happen.

After finishing this, I beg to differ. For me this is a concluded story with an ending, so it could even be read as a standalone, theoretically, although you will miss parts of the story, so I advise against it. The war and a possible uprising will be ongoing, so no real surprise there, and imho it is not even a cliffhanger.

The book poses some serious questions to your morals, ethics and conscience - namely how to govern a multi-billion-people fast empire spanning 1300 habitable worlds.
As always, the (former earth-mars) technology is very well extrapolated into the future, and even little things like hacking feel very real in their descriptions.

But this is about people, and in the end, as before, quite a few are dead. It is war, after all.
While the series had some very formulaic writing before, this book was for me one of the best.
Highly recommended, and also highly recommended series, even the short stories and novellas (although I think, some are too expansive).
Hard SF with great world-building and an epic story-arc.
Still have not managed to watch the SyFy/Amazon Prime TV-Series, but plan to.

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Review: Call Me by Your Name

Call Me by Your Name by André Aciman
My rating: 0 of 5 stars

Saw the movie, rented for 99ct. with Amazon Prime Video, most of it in FastForward, not my thing, so did not even start the book, waste of money. No rating as I did not even glanced into it.
Experiencing love and sex with a girl and a grown man, but dull coming of age story set in a past and in a setting which means nothing to me.
Should have investigated more. Do not understand the hype about this.

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Review: The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

3.5 to 4 stars, rounded to 4, for a start in a new series.
Could have been more suspenseful.
World-building excellent, buta bit much, with all the different sexes and species.
So it took me a few books in between to get through this, but I still recommend it.

Tragedy and forced actions happens later in the book which change everything, and after that the captain has to answer to a committee of the GC (Galactic Coalition?) of non-human species, where he chose to speak freely, starting a chain reaction with political consequences. It will be interesting to see how the conflict develops in the next book(s).

Diverse, good ideas and conflict, romance in strange ways. Exploring themes which may be relevant to us soon (AI, interspecies sex, gender), all in a way which I consider very well written, better even than in Not Your Sidekick. So I have to say, THIS book deserves the 4 star even more, which I also rated the "Not your sidekick".
Will certainly read the next book sometime, not sure what I am in the mood for now.

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Review: Heist Society

Heist Society by Ally Carter
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Bought this on a whim, price was ok (ebook).
Wanted to read about a heist, so basically should have been what I wanted.
Not enough suspense or action. A lot twists, but not everything was solved (or I did not get it).
Took me a little too long to read, would have expected to read something fast, but while it did not drag, it did not really manage to keep me turning-pages either.
No sex, no death, a little romance which did not really interest me, a little bit of love-triangle, but not solved. Not sure to call the open threads cliffhanger, more like a reason to buy the next book, but it is all not enough for me to invest in this series.

Ok read for rainy day, but will most probably not read the other books in the series.
Still have a few other things from this author (free preview, short story etc.), will try to read them to make sure wether this is an author for me - I think, maybe not. Not recommended.

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