Sara Furlong-Burr

I received an advanced copy of this book for free. While it's different than the books I tend to gravitate towards (I'm a more fantasy-driven reader), When Time Stands Still had me captivated from the start.

It isn't the most original of storylines - amnesia and its grip on the relationships of its victim - but the book is so well-written, so descriptive, and so carefully driven in its storytelling that I plowed through it in a single evening. As a first-person account of both present-day and a decade prior, each glimpse of the past gives a further view inti who our lead is... and why she made the choice we're alerted to at the very beginning of the book.

This was my first book from this author, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.… (meer)

Elle Sloan hasn't seen Luke Hutchins in over a decade since she broke up with him over the phone. His mother calls her because Luke was in a bad car accident and can't remember anything since the time he and Elle were together in college. She agrees to go see him, hoping to help recover. There are just a few complications: Elle is married, Luke's family and friends still blame her for the breakup, and Elle has her own issues from her background to cope with.
I love second-chance stories, and Ms. Burr does a nice job on this one. The book goes back and forth from the current time to the ten years earlier when Elle and Luke met. It builds the story quite nicely and the pacing is good. Elle and Luke are a good pair though I did think that Elle might have displayed more angst over her background - her mother's alcoholism and the bad boyfriend - than she did; it would have made her eventual reason for the breakup to be more believable.
The secondary characters are fun. Both Mena and Malone deserve their own book as Mena's dialogue is hilarious.
The writing is okay. There's a bit too much passive voice, tense changes, and some YA tropes and over-writing such as: "I know I look like a hot mess - one that has been stomped on by an elephant, run over by a train, and then shit on by life." The story is so good I wish some of this had been addressed, but I didn't find it too distracting.
Anyway, this was a good story, and I enjoyed the read very much. Readers who like second-chance romances will like this one.… (meer)

Originally posted on
http://www.extaordinaryreads.com
Vendetta Nation continues the saga of Celaine Stevens begun in Enigma Black. The concept of a superhuman, trained and equipped with cutting edge technology to give them advantage is a notion that gained much popularity in the comic books of a previous generation--think Wonder Woman, Superman--Many a hero from those books are still scripted into block-buster movies screened to this day, proving their longevity.
Celaine has motive to leave her ordinary life behind her and embark on a crusade against the "Man in Black", he has created demonic destruction across the continent in the form of wicked terror attacks, one of which annihilated Celaine's entire family in the most tragic way. Celaine has been redesigned by a splinter government agency and given enhance prowess through the harnessing of boosted adrenaline in her body. She even gets a kinky black superhero suit to tackle her nemeses in. The reason for her altered state and the method of turning her are well thought out and the rationality lends credence to the story.
Sadly, Celaine has to face the consequences of the decisions she made in Enigma Black in Vendetta Nation. Chase, the sexy doctor whom she loves, but leaves to pursue her vengeance, has moved on with his life. Brad the partner who trained her into her newfound super-abilities is dead, but replaced with the annoyingly gorgeous Ian, whom she finds herself attracted to. All the while trying to focus on the "Man in Black", and his obvious vendetta against her, Celaine fights to free the world of terror, and discover the true nature of the demons that haunt her including the horror of losing her best friend in addition to the other people in her life she has had to let go of.
Allow yourself the pleasure of an exhilarating ride into an imaginatively dreamed Sci-Fi world that will have you marveling at the sheer creativity on the part of this talented author.… (meer)