The Prison Healer - by Lynette Noni

Title:             The Prison Healer

Author:        Lynette Noni

Published:  30 March, 2021

Series:          The Prison Healer #1

Rating:         4 stars

Synopsis:

Seventeen-year-old Kiva Meridan has spent the last ten years fighting for survival in the notorious death prison, Zalindov, working as the prison healer.
When the Rebel Queen is captured, Kiva is charged with keeping the terminally ill woman alive long enough for her to undergo the Trial by Ordeal: a series of elemental challenges against the torments of air, fire, water, and earth, assigned to only the most dangerous of criminals.
Then a coded message from Kiva’s family arrives, containing a single order: “Don’t let her die. We are coming.” Aware that the Trials will kill the sickly queen, Kiva risks her own life to volunteer in her place. If she succeeds, both she and the queen will be granted their freedom. But no one has ever survived. With an incurable plague sweeping Zalindov, a mysterious new inmate fighting for Kiva’s heart, and a prison rebellion brewing, Kiva can’t escape the terrible feeling that her trials have only just begun.

I managed to read an early copy of this book from work and wanted to give it an honest, spoiler-free review.

All thoughts and opinions regarding this book are solely my own.

Our Characters:

Kiva: our main character who has seen Some Things in her lifetime.

Jaren: our main man who has also seen Some Things in his life but somehow remains positive.

Naari: our guard who seems to be nicer than the rest.

Tipp: our little cinnamon roll and my favourite character just for being the littler of sunshine that he is!

I loved Jaren's humour and I also love how natural the amputee, stutter and blindness are when they're mentioned in the story; they don't seem as if they're forced in just for the sake of being in the story. Also the casual mention of someone being gay and the other main characters not even making a fuss about it.

One thing I picked up on though, was how tunnel fever reminded me of back at the start of the coronavirus pandemic; how easily it was spreading and the precautions you had to take if you dealt with someone with the virus so you also didn't become infected.

I did like how when you look at the side of the book at the pages you can see two blacked out parts of pages which makes it interesting as you don't know what that's about until you get there and when you get to that point in the book, it makes total sense why they're blacked out.

One point reminded me of something I've read at some stage though -- how some prisoner's in real life somewhere are allowed to look after shelter cats in the prison and it helps not only the prisoners, but also the cats as both parties learn to love and trust again. The prison cat in The Prison Healer named Boots reminds me of that and I really like that it was mentioned.

There was something I wasn't really fond of in the book though which was how often something like "Those five words were..." was said. It just became little repetitive over time, but it didn't detract from the story which was good.

However the final chapter was shocking with what it revealed! It probably didn't help that I had to stop with only three pages left at one stage as I'd had something on a timer. I also later figured out that I'd already called what was going to happen, but it was still a shock to the system. But oh my goodness, I seriously can't wait for the second book in this series to come out! I need to know what happens next!

"What about Your Highness?"

He pulled a face. "Definitely not." 

"Your Grace?" 

"I'm not a duke." 

"Your Excellency?" 

"Nor a lord." 

"Your Majesty?" 

"Please stop."

__________________________________________________

All books in this series:

    1 | The Prison Healer
    2 | The Gilded Cage

Almost Midnight - by Rainbow Rowell

Title:              Almost Midnight

Author:         Rainbow Rowell

Published:   Nov 2, 2017

Rating:          3 stars

Synopsis:

Midnights is the story of Noel and Mags, who meet at the same New Year's Eve party every year and fall a little more in love each time . . .
Kindred Spirits is about Elena, who decides to queue to see the new Star Wars movie and meets Gabe, a fellow fan.

Midnights was previously published as part of the My True Love Gave to Me anthology, edited by Stephanie Perkins and Kindred Spirits was previously published as a World Book Day title.

I picked this book up from my local bookstore as at only 131 pages, I could see that it was going to be a quick read (and I managed to read it in roughly an hour, so I take that as a win for me).

These two short stories were cute and gave me the warm and fuzzies inside. My favourite of the two was the first one titled Midnights but I also liked the second titled Kindred Spirits, just not as much as the first one.

In Midnights, I really hope that they stay together (as friends or as lovers? You'll only know if you raed the book! I'm not giving away spoilers!). I'd give this one a 4 star rating.

In Kindred Spirits, I hope that all three of them remain friends and get to see many a 'Star Wars' movie together, even if it's just the three of them sitting at someone's house marathon watching them or something like that. I'd give this one a 3 star rating.

I adored the glittery cover too and also loved that the glitter didn't come off everywhere while I was trying to read but maintained the awesome sparkle!

Pay attention to the illustrator's name of this book as you may notice it somewhere in one of the stories; I did! The illustrations were amazing and I loved the way that both of these stories were set out with their chapter headings etc.

'I need you to be my person,' Mags said. 'I need to see you. And hear you. I need you to stay alive. And I need you to stop kissing other people just because they're standing next to you when the ball drops.'

Big Little Lies - by Liane Moriarty

Title: Big Little Lies

Author: Liane Moriarty

Published: 1 Apr 2015

Series: -

Rating: 3 stars

Synopsis:

The internationally bestselling author turns her unique gaze on the dangerous little lies we tell ourselves every day and what really goes on behind closed suburban doors.
'I guess it started with the mothers.'
'It was all just a terrible misunderstanding.'
'I'll tell you exactly why it happened.'
Pirriwee Public's annual school Trivia Night has ended in a shocking riot. A parent is dead. Was it murder, a tragic accident... or something else entirely?
"Big Little Lies" is a funny, heartbreaking, challenging story of ex-husbands and second wives, new friendships, old betrayals and and schoolyard politics.

Trigger Warning: domestic abuse, bullying, sexual assault

This book was the Bookish Bean Co. book club pick for Nov 2020.

I know that this book has been turned into a TV series featuring actors like Reese Witherspoon and our  own Nicole Kidman (I know she wasn't born in Australia, but we've pretty much adopted her as our own), however I haven't seen it so I went into this book without being biased.

Overall, I didn't mind the book, however it did feel like it dragged on a little bit and I was usually more interested in Jane's back story and what was happening with __________. I was a little irritated that by page 100 out of 450+ I still didn't even know who had died, but I think that may just be a point to do with me in general and less about the book -- after all, isn't that the entire point of this plot?

'Let me be clear. This is not a circus. This is a murder investigation.'

Ed threatened to kill Nathan and frame Bonnie. Madeline threatened to kill Renata. Is Madeline dead? Or Celeste? Or maybe Jane? So many options!

At the start I was curious why Celeste wanted to 'put down her marriage', but the more that you read, the more the story unfolds and makes sense why she would say that.

I did like when Patricia Cromwell was mentioned and The Australian newspaper though as it brings a little of real life into the fictional story.

In regards to the bullying and the domestic violence warning at the start of this review: people need to remember that the victim is never at fault -- that's what makes them the victim. There are many reasons for people to stay in their situation, whatever that may be, but we all should do our best to notice the signs and help them out of trouble if we can!

I wouldn't have picked up this book on my own if it hadn't been one of the books that the book club picked, but I'm oddly glad that I did. It may not have quite been my pace, but it did deal with adult themes like domestic abuse and sexual assault in a way that impacted without sounding false.

Spoilers!

I did have a theory around page 160 where I wondered if maybe Ziggy had choked Jane before, or maybe an ex, and it turns out that I was right about the ex -- in a weird, twisted sort of way.

At one point I did also have a theory that maybe Juliette choked Amabella and that she blamed Ziggy as Juliette may have had a child with Saxon and seen the resemblance between her own child and Jane's -- but luckily that wasn't true.

I was surprised when we found out that Perry was Jane's Saxon Banks though -- that he'd used his cousin's name as his own when dealing with 'one night stands'.

End Spoilers!

Aurora Burning - by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

Title: Aurora Burning

Author: Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

Published: 5 May 2020

Series: The Aurora Cycle #2

Rating: 5 stars

Synopsis:

Our heroes are back… kind of. From the bestselling co-authors of the Illuminae Files comes the second book in the epic series about a squad of misfits, losers, and discipline cases who just might be the galaxy’s best hope for survival.
First, the bad news: an ancient evil—you know, your standard consume-all-life-in-the-galaxy deal—is about to be unleashed. The good news? Squad 312 is standing by to save the day. They’ve just got to take care of a few small distractions first.
Like the clan of gremps who’d like to rearrange their favorite faces.
And the cadre of illegit GIA agents with creepy flowers where their eyes used to be, who’ll stop at nothing to get their hands on Auri.
Then there’s Kal’s long-lost sister, who’s not exactly happy to see her baby brother, and has a Syldrathi army at her back. With half the known galaxy on their tails, Squad 312 has never felt so wanted.
When they learn the Hadfield has been found, it’s time to come out of hiding. Two centuries ago, the colony ship vanished, leaving Auri as its sole survivor. Now, its black box might be what saves them. But time is short, and if Auri can’t learn to master her powers as a Trigger, the squad and all their admirers are going to be deader than the Great Ultrasaur of Abraaxis IV.
Shocking revelations, bank heists, mysterious gifts, inappropriately tight bodysuits, and an epic firefight will determine the fate of the Aurora Legion’s most unforgettable heroes—and maybe the rest of the galaxy as well.

I listened to this as an audiobook.

So... I'm wiring this only minutes after I've finished the audiobook and my hand is currently hurting a little from where I banged my fist on the table in frustration. The book ends like that?! There were tears, there were cute moments and funny lines; comebacks and explosions and shocking news.

And I loved all of it.

I still loved that there were different narrators for the different character points of view. Having different narrators for the different characters helps when there's quite a few characters to keep track of (at least with me it does) as I was easily able to tell whose chapter was whose and it helped my mind keep track of where everyone was in space and what they were all up to.

My favourite moment was probably the moments just before the end of the book. I'm not sure whether it was because we got to hear from every character about how they were feeling or whether that's the last and most prominent moment to me right now, but I loved it.

When we found out about Saedii and who her family is, I was shocked. However, I'd also somehow called it before that about who her family was, so I think that took a little of my shock factor away and just made it more of an "Aha! I knew it!" kind of moment.

I'm also glad that we finally got to hear about what happened to Zila when she was younger as I was dying to know thanks to the passing moment in Aurora Rising when she referenced the time when she was six.

I will definitely be purchasing the next book in the series when it comes out as I can't believe that Jay and Amie would leave the book on that note! Actually, knowing their writing styles I sort of can believe it... But still! How was I supposed to prepare my heart for that?!

Spoilers!

I'm guessing that Zila is on the autism spectrum somewhere based on her severely analytical thinking, her difficulty with social skills and how she doesn't seem to make eye contact with anyone. I may be wrong and that may just be how she is as a person, but it's just my guess.

I'm really hoping that Fin and Scarlett get together or at least kiss once because I'm pretty sure they'd make a cute couple and they way they interact with each other is funny when they're using sarcasm and wit, and also uplifting when they're making each other feel better and taking care of one another.

Oddly enough, I'm also hoping that Ty and Saedii get to know each other a little better (or maybe a lot better? Depends if they both still want to kill each other, I suppose).

Those final couple of times when Tyler spoke to "Kat" were the parts that made me cry though.

End Spoilers!

__________________________________________________

All books in this series:

    1 | Aurora Rising
    2 | Aurora Burning