Book Review: The Brown House

I wasn't kidding when I said that The Visitor's series was next on my list. And after participating in the cover reveal for the third book, I was excited to get started. 

Brylee is a California teen who has to move across the country after her father loses his job. They end up in New Jersey, where the creepy house on the book cover becomes their new home. Everyone in town is frightened of the brown house, with talk of people dying in there, and of ghosts. Little did she know, Brylee has the ability to unlock the house's secrets. 

This book had me hooked pretty fast. While the idea of an old, haunted house may seem very first season, American Horror Story, The Brown House is it's own story. But just to warn you: you'll want the second book ready to read because the end of this one is going to have you shaking your fist and cursing. (Or maybe that's just my thing. ) 

After last year, when I discovered both Stacey Rourke and J.B. Lynn, I was wondering if I would find an author this year that I loved as much. Christy Sloat, you're it, lady!  But be warned: I've been known to live fb message authors while reading their books!

Stay tuned for the next review. Grab this book up and let me know what you think!

Book Review: Nearly Departed

You may hate your job, but do you have to clean up the mess that the dead leave behind?

Vicky is not a maid.  While she owns a cleaning business with her brother, the messes that she is contracted to clean up are a bit...bloody.

Keeping Spring Cleaning up and running years after her brother was declared missing in Afghanistan, Vicky has to handle all of the dirty work herself.  Crime clean up is her life, and on top of it all, she can see ghosts.  They tend to bug her at each job she goes to, wanting her to help them in some way.  And when she is contracted to clean a murder-suicide of three college students, their ghosts tell her that this is not how it happened.

If you happen to keep up with my book reviews, you have seen my thoughts on the the Hitwoman Series.  (Spoiler - I love them!)   J.B. Lynn writes wonderful fiction, and I practically begged her for a copy of this book to read and review! 

I can't wait for the next book in this series to come out.  I hope she's working on it now!  I breezed through this book, finding the plot engaging, suspenseful, and yet still hilarious in places.  And who would have thought that among the bloody carpets and ghosts with half a face that romance could start?

Do yourself a favor and buy this as an early Christmas present to yourself!

Book Review: The Hitwoman and the Neurotic Witness

Let me tell you about how much I love J. B. Lynn - she's awesome!  Not only does she write immersive, funny as heck stuff, but she's also super nice!

How do I know this?

Well, I don't mean to brag, but I've gotten the chance to chat with her on twitter before.  I have an author crush on her, as well as Stacey Rourke (The Gryphon Series).  I'd like to sit around with these ladies, drink coffee, and have them write stories just for me.  Does that sound creepy?  Too bad.

 

Amazon link

The Neurotic Witness is the 5th book in Lynn's Hitwoman series, although I have read them all this year.  Part of me wishes that I had been aware of this series from the start, but the other part is glad that I didn't have to wait and wait around for each book.  It was hard enough waiting for this one, and now it's over and I'm back to waiting!

Crazy aunts, talking animals and one hunky hitman/police detective fill this book.  Maggie's life is a constant whirlwind, and I swear she never gets to sit down. Who is the mob boss going to demand that she kill next?  Is her niece, Katie ever going to fully recover from the car accident?  Why did her apartment blow up?  Can she really talk to animals?  Most important of all - is Patrick ever going to leave his wife?  I loved every minute of this book.

It took me a day and a half to read this book, and that's only because I've got a puny kiddo and husband on my hands.  I ate this book up like I was dining at an all you can eat sushi place.  If you decide to give the series a try, let Lynn know I sent you.  I need all the brownie points I can get with my author crushes!

Book Review: The Hitwoman Series

I said that these books were on my "to-read" list, and I meant it.  Once I started in with the first book, I couldn't get the next one fast enough.  And now that it's over (until the next book comes out) I feel bummed.  I was lucky enough that they aren't expensive to buy an ecopy of; the most I paid for one was $3.99.

So how do I talk about all four books without giving too many things away?  Maggie was in a car accident with her sister, sister's husband and niece.  While Maggie came out relatively unharmed, her niece Katie went into a coma, and Katie's parents didn't make it.  A "good Samaritan" act gets her propositioned for a job as a hitwoman, hired to kill.  While she never in her life thought that she would kill anyone ever, the people on the list are bad people, and she has to find some way to pay her niece's hospital bills.

Aside from all of this craziness within her life, Maggie finds that since the accident she can understand and talk to animals.  Katie's pet lizard, Godzilla (or God, as he prefers to be called) gives Maggie the business when she tries to give him freeze-dried crickets instead of live ones.

So Maggie has an adopted talking lizard, a comatose niece, and a mobster for a boss.  And if that isn't enough, she has to continue working her day job at an insurance company as well.

I love these books so much.  I got through them like a Janet Evanovich or Charlaine Harris novel.  The third book was more of a novella, and I wish it had been longer.  So far, my favorite of these is the last one, The Hitwoman and the Family Jewels.  But if you haven't read the others, don't skip right to this one.  Read at least the first two books before.

Lynn leaves you hanging at the end of Family Jewels, and I wish that the next book was already out so that I could continue the story.  If you give these books a try, let me know what you think about them.  I'd love to hear!