Mini Reviews Wrap Up October 2023

 

Here at Chapter Break, we don’t always write a full review of every book we read. Well, now we decided to do these monthly wrap-up posts with roundups of our reviews this month and mini-reviews to fill in the gaps. Enjoy!

Mini Book Reviews

 

Lessons in Chemistry: A Novel: I read this for book club, an in person book club I am finally able to attend. I hear there’s a tv series now available on Apple TV if you have that. I did the audio and really enjoyed the narrator. I’m at the 4.5 rolled up to a 5 stars rating. I really enjoyed it, but it made me sad, and it made me angry, and it made me really proud of Elizabeth for everything she was determined to do alone, especially Elizabeth’s stubbornness and ahead of her time ambitions. I really liked the closure in the ending. But my favorite character is the dog, 6:30.

Everything else I read this month is a standalone review post either for this month or early next.

 

ASSISTANT TO THE VILLAIN: This book was completely adorable! And I need the next book in the series now. Not in a year. Major Princess Bride vibes. Mystery (who’s the traitor!). Sword fights. Poisons. No fire swamp. But there is a dragon! The villain is on his vengeance\revenge against the king. But here, Evie is a self-rescuing heroine. Which I definitely appreciated. Humor. And a subtle romance, where the romance is not the main plot. A refreshing read. With excellent narration. 12/5.

LAST ORACLE: Weird coincidence that the previous book from James Rollins was about a global plague, which I read during COVID. This one is about Russians in Chernobyl. The short chapters and shifts in POV’s make these books a super fast paced, which I definitely appreciate. Globe-trotting adventure. Car chases. An attack on Sigma’s home base. All the action-adventure I could want. Another excellent adventure with the Sigma Force team.

A GOOD GIRL’S GUIDE TO MURDER: You know what. I was pleasantly surprised by this one. Clearly, I need more mysteries in my life! Well, as long as they keep me guessing the whole time. This is written\narrated like a true crime podcast, with Pippa’s senior project being to solve two local murders. (Wow. That’s ambitious for a senior project!) I got sucked into the plot right away, even emotionally so in some scenes. I enjoyed the Pippa \ Ravi crime solving duo. I’m always in for a full cast audio narration, and that format shines here. Including the audio production of making interviews sound like actual phone interviews. I’ll certainly be checking out the next book in this series.

UNTIL THE LAST OF ME: I was about to read book three in this series because I REALLY THOUGHT I’d already read book two. Turns out, nope. But that’s ok. Because I read it now. I find Neuvel’s storytelling completely compelling. That combination of science, fiction, and history just works. I don’t want to stop listening. Again, like the first novel, excellent full cast recording. But this time around, we have the space race in the 70’s, with more focus on the solving the history of the 100 generations before Mia and Lola. More details on the trackers. That ending! Plus I always appreciate the afterward with all the research and information which goes into these books. Another 12 Stars of of 5 for me!

 

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Books we reviewed this month:

• [2 Oct] The Coldest Winter I Ever Spent by Ann Jacobus ★★★★★
• [5 Oct] Mom Wombat Says Make War No More! by Phyllis Schwartz, Siski Kalla ★★★★½
• [6 Oct] Gemja - The Message by K.M. Messina, Nataliia Pavliuk ★★★★
• [10 Oct] Dead By Proxy: A Lawyer On The Run Action Suspense (Proxy Legal Thriller Series Book 1) by Manning Wolfe ★★★★★
• [18 Oct] Pringle Prawn by Michael Scott Clifton ★★★★★
• [30 Oct] Rune of the Witch (The Other Witch, #0.5) by Heather G. Harris

 

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