A perfect book for a spooky fall,
Hanover House sets up a new series with psychiatrist Evelyn Talbot as the main character. When she was sixteen, her boyfriend murdered three of her friends and nearly succeeded in slitting her throat as well. Since then, she's studied serial murderers, trying to figure out what makes them tick. Her baby is a project called Hanover House, a prison being built in a small Alaskan town, not far from Fairbanks.
But the locals aren't exactly excited to have a bunch of sociopaths shipped up from the Lower 48. In fact, someone's been messing around in her building, writing nasty words on the wall and tearing down some of the construction.
Local law enforcement, Sergeant Benjamin Murphy, colloquially known as Sergeant Amarok, calls the good doctor to come up and see the damage.
Because this is such a short story, I don't want to give too much away. This is the start of a nice departure from a more heavily romance book to a bit more suspense for Novak. Her books have never been "comfort reading" for me so this fits in nicely to my perception. I just hope that Jasper (the ex who escaped from prison almost as soon as he was put in) is either sidelined for awhile , becomes more a background noise, or is dealt with quickly. He had way too much action and if that continues, it will get old fast.
WARNING: I didn't read the description carefully. This book is a prequel. It is short.
Followed by
Her Darkest Nightmare
I honestly couldn't tell if this was a vintage story at first (the thugs, the kidnapping, the eyes on the ducks) but the copyright date says 2015 so I'm going with it. A great piece of nostalgia with the main story being about a scientist from Gourmaind coming over to the States and being kidnapped. But reporter Donald Duck is on the case. Thank goodness he's getting some help from his nephews.
Woot, woot! Another librarian book! Too bad this book suffers from the return of too much backstory. Every time a character is introduced, we're reminded of what happened in a previous. And, actually, it's not just when they're introduced. It's repetitively knocked over the reader's heads.
There is a LOT of information in the first part of this book. Like, a lot. A lot. A cavalcade. And because of that fact, none of it is very in depth. While I'm guessing this may be aimed at new-to-yoga practitioners, it is guaranteed to be overwhelming. There are entire books, entire retreats that cover things that half the page in this book.
Ugh. I really wish NetGalley would warn you when a book is going to be a novella. I really liked the description of Alex Chernoff, successful ladies man, spontaneously deciding to blow off his fabulous vacation because the dad who deserted him sent a birthday card. But the novella form was not long enough to really develop the characters of either Alex or his heroine, Emma, who is in visiting her family at the same time Alex is discovering his. She is very entwined in the lives of Alex's father and siblings and very suspect of Alex. Nor was this book really long enough to do anything other than rush the plot development. I
I've been reading Big Nate books for over a decade. They're a fast and easy to read, nothing offensive for kids. A little snark, but nothing serious.