[ARC REVIEW] The Coyote by David B. Bond

 

Title:  The Coyote

Author:  David B. Bond

Genre: Mystery

Year Published: 2023

Number of Pages: 234 pages

Date Read: 11/11/2023

Publisher:   David B. Bond

Series: Young Detective Choo Murder Mystery #1

Source:   eARC (Publisher)

Content Rating:  Ages 16+ (Gory Violence)

Buy on:  Amazon 

I would like to thank Squeedeal for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

So, it has been a while since I last read a mystery novel and thankfully, author, David B. Bond, has given me an extremely intriguing mystery novel called “The Coyote” and man, was this such an interesting mystery novel to read!

The book starts off with a couple who were walking in the streets together when all of a sudden, the woman named Lana was murdered by a female passerby and Lana’s death ended up traumatizing her husband.  It was then that Lana’s husband decided to go on a murdering spree to avenge the death of his wife Lana and he ends up murdering any woman who has blonde hair.  This string of murders has attracted the attention of the police force and the police ended up hiring a young and capable detective named Choochai Sirisi, also known as Choo, and Detective Choo ends up spending most of the book trying to find out who has been murdering all of these innocent women.

David B. Bond has done a fantastic job at writing this book!  I loved the way that the characters are written, as each character are extremely interesting and I especially loved the main character Choochai Sirisi himself, as he is shown as being an intelligent and nice detective who tries his best to get the job done.  I also loved the fact that this story takes place in Thailand as I love reading books that take place in different countries and it was awesome seeing how the culture of Thailand is like.  Another thing that I loved about this book was just how exciting this book was.  David B. Bond has done a brilliant job at making the book both intense and exciting at the same time as we follow Choo’s determination in solving this murder case and trying not to get killed by the murderer.  I was literally sitting on the edge of my seat, hoping that Choo would not get killed by the murderer while he was solving the case.  I also loved the plot twist towards the end of this book as I did not see that coming and it really made the entire book even more enjoyable to read!

For anyone who does not like violent content, this book revolves around a murder and so, there are many graphic depictions of dead bodies, such as maggots crawling over the dead bodies, that might be a bit nauseating for some readers to handle.  Also, for me personally, I felt that the ending of this book was a bit rushed as there were some plot threads that were left hanging.  But, since this is the first book in the “Young Detective Choo Murder Mystery” series, it does make sense to leave some plot threads hanging in order to solve them in the next book.

Overall, “The Coyote” is a fantastic murder mystery that you should definitely read!  Even if the mention of dead bodies might be a bit much for some readers and the ending was a bit rushed, this murder mystery novel does a fantastic job at keeping readers entertained from beginning to end and it is definitely a murder mystery novel that is worth reading!

 

You might also like: 

• Practice Makes Perfect by Julie James

• A Lot Like Love by Julie James

• Something About You by Julie James

[BOOK REVIEW] When a Texan Gambles by Jodi Thomas

Title:  When a Texan Gambles

Author:  Jodi Thomas

Genre: Historical Romance

Year Published: 2003

Number of Pages:  304 pages

Date Read: 3/11/2011

Series: Wife Lottery #2

Publisher:  Berkley Books

Source:  Library

Content Rating:  Ages 16+ (Some Language and Gun Violence)

Buy on:  Amazon  //  Book Depository 

I have been currently reading Jodi Thomas's “Wife Lottery” series and after I have just finished the first book of the series, “The Texan's Wager,” which starred Bailee Moore and Carter McKoy, I finally got the chance to read the second book of the series, “When a Texan Gambles.” “When a Texan Gambles” stars Sarah Andrews and Sam Gatlin and boy, do they have wild adventures throughout this book! Expect a whole lot of drama, adventure and romance in this exciting sequel to “The Texan's Wager!”

After Sarah Andrews confessed to the murder of Zeb Whitaker along with her friends Bailee and Lacy, she was auctioned off in a “Wife Lottery” and ends up with a man named Sam Gatlin. Things were not going well for Sarah until she realized that Sam was stabbed in the back with a knife! Now that Sarah has taken care of Sam's wounds, she will soon discover that she is probably married to the most dangerous man the west have ever known!

Wow! I think this had to be the most action-packed story out of the entire “Wife Lottery” series so far! Jodi Thomas has done an awesome job at providing action throughout this novel, which just had me sitting on the edge of my seat every time I read about Sam and Sarah's escapades in escaping from various crooks who are after Sam's neck! What I really loved about this book were the characters themselves and my favorite characters in this book were Sam Gatlin and Sarah Andrews! I will admit that I really adored Sarah's spunk and kindness towards others as she is an innocent yet kind-hearted woman and I loved the way that she is willing to help anyone in their time of need, which includes helping various families reunite with each other. I also loved the little arguments that Sarah has with Sam because they were so cute and they always seem to make up at the end. Now, I am saving the best character for last and that is the sexiest and bravest cowboy to ever walk the planet, Sam Gatlin! Sam Gatlin is probably the most amazing romance heroes ever created because he is one-hundred percent all muscle on the outside and has a huge heart on the inside and that is what I like about my romance heroes!   Now, this book does not just have adventure, it also has hot and sizzling romantic scenes! The sexual moments between Sarah and Sam were just so steamy that I was literally fanning myself every time I read these scenes between Sarah and Sam!

The reason why I gave this book a four star rating is because I often got a little frustrated with Sarah throughout the book because she does not seem to trust Sam enough and she rarely reciprocates her feelings for Sam. Now, I do understand that she is a little reluctant in loving someone again because of her empty relationship with Mitchell, her first husband, but sometimes I think that Sarah tends to go a little overboard with telling off Sam about showing his love for her and also the fact that Sarah keeps telling Sam about the rules of love sort of makes me a little uncomfortable because I always love seeing how love comes naturally to romance heroes and heroines, rather than base it on a set of rules.

Overall, “When a Texan Gambles” is a great sequel to “The Texan's Wager” that romance fans of Jodi Thomas's works will greatly enjoy. I am definitely looking forward to reading the third book in the series “A Texan's Luck” next!

You might also like:

• The Texan's Wager by Jodi Thomas

• A Texan's Luck by Jodi Thomas
• The Texan's Reward by Jodi Thomas

[ARC REVIEW] Limbo Volume 1 by Dan Watters

 

Title:  Limbo Volume 1


Author:  Dan Watters


Artist:  Caspar Wijngaard

Genre:  Science Fiction / Crime / Mystery / Horror / Alternative Universe

 
Year Published:  2016

Year Read: 12/16/2016

 
Series:  Limbo #1

 
Publisher:  Image Comics


Source: eARC (NetGalley)


Content Rating:  Ages 16+ (Strong Language and Gory Violence)

I would like to thank NetGalley and Image Comics for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Introduction:

Since I am on the roll when it comes to reading books from NetGalley, I have picked up another graphic novel that sounds pretty interesting called “Limbo Volume One” which is written by Dan Watters along with artwork by Caspar Wijngaard.

What is this story about?

Welcome to the world of Dedande City, where reality and technology becomes blended into one universe and mysterious god like beings called Deities lay dormant in video cassettes. Living in this world is a detective named Clay who does not have any memories of who he really is and is often described as being a very rude man.  One night however, he ends up getting a mysterious client named Bridgette who asks him to take down a powerful crime boss named The Thumb and once Clay goes on this mission, he soon realizes that The Thumb is involved in some supernatural shenanigans where reality suddenly begins to unravel.  Clay will soon discover that searching for his true identity in this surreal world would mean that he would have to search in the darkest corners of the supernatural and technical world to find the answers he is searching for.

What I loved about this story:

The premise: Dan Watters has written an extremely interesting premise for this series where people can enter other worlds through television sets and get messages from another universe through VHS cassettes.  I really enjoyed this aspect of the story since it is extremely unique and it made the story somewhat interesting to me and I enjoyed exploring this strange new world that our main character Clay lives in.  I also loved the character of Sandy, the woman who took Clay in and also has the ability to contact the spirit world through her mix tapes, as she is an extremely unique and fun character to read about and I enjoyed seeing her try to help out Clay when he got in trouble with the crime boss and how she used her abilities to learn more about the situation that Clay got himself into.

Caspar Wijngaard’s artwork:  Caspar Wijngaard’s artwork is highly creative to look at as the characters are shown in different colors such as Clay having blue skin and is mostly shown in blue clothing while Sandy has green skin and is constantly wearing green clothing.  These colorings really set the characters apart from each other and also describe their personalities somewhat as Clay’s blue coloring depicts his sad past and his determination to find out who he is while Sandy’s green coloring shows how alien she is in this world.  I also loved the way that Caspar Wijngaard presented the images of TV static throughout the story as it gives the story an unearthly and unique feel.

What made me feel uncomfortable about this story:

For anyone who does not like strong language and violence, this volume has a bit of strong language such as using the “f” word a few times and it also has some violence such as some scenes of people being graphically cut with knives.  Also, the reason why I gave this volume a three star rating was because I felt that the plot was a bit too confusing as there were many supernatural and technical elements going on at the same time and it made the story a bit hard to understand.  Also, I felt that most of the characters in this volume were too flat as we do not know much about these characters and I felt that their personalities were a bit boring also.  The only character I felt that was interesting was Sandy as she does have a bubbly personality and the fact that she can contact the spirit world through her mix tapes made her the most interesting character in this volume.

Final Thoughts:

Overall, even though “Limbo Volume One” had an interesting premise about alternative realities and technology coming together in one world, the plot was a bit too confusing for me to understand and I felt that the characters should have been developed a little better.  However, I will pick up the second volume to see if the story improves.

  

[ARC REVIEW] Black Magick: Awakening Volume 1 by Greg Rucka

Title:  Black Magick: Awakening Volume 1


Author:  Greg Rucka


Artist:  Nicola Scott

Genre:  Mystery / Fantasy / Thriller / Crime

Year Published:  2016

Year Read: 5/30/2016

Series:  Black Magick #1

Publisher:  Image Comics


Source: eARC (NetGalley)


Content Rating:  Ages 16+ (Some Intense Scenes)

I would like to thank NetGalley and Image Comics for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Introduction:

 

Now, I have been reading graphic novels that usually have a mixture of different genres within a story and most of them were pretty well done as it is quite unusual and rare to see two different genres existing in the same story.  So, when I heard so many good things about Greg Rucka’s “Black Magick Volume One: Awakening” graphic novel, I just knew that I had to give this series a try!

What is this story about?

Rowan Black is a detective who works with the Portsmouth PD and she has a secret…she is a WITCH!  Fortunately, Rowan was able to keep her identity as a witch a secret from the police department and from the world at large.  Unfortunately, one night, she comes across a man who held up a restaurant and she had to go inside the restaurant to confront the man.  It turns out that the man knows that Rowan is a witch and he ended up lighting himself on fire!  This event then made Rowan realize that someone knows about her powers and is targeting her and Rowan must find out who this person is before it is too late! 

What I loved about this story:

Greg Rucka’s writing: That thing I mentioned earlier about reading various graphic novels that combine two different genres effortlessly?  Greg Rucka did a great job at combining mystery and magic all into one story and I loved the way that we have a main character in Rowan Black who not only uses her detective skills to solve various cases, but also uses her magic to discover things about the case that would be impossible for the human eye to see.  I really loved the character Rowan herself as she is shown to be a strong female protagonist who uses her magic for good and it was interesting seeing a character who is a witch, but also a detective as that made her into such a unique character!  I also loved the way that the story mixed crime and mystery with magical elements as it made this story interesting to read as I was interested in seeing how the detectives would solve the case while also enjoying the fantasy elements of the story.

Nicola Scott’s artwork:  Nicola Scott’s artwork is seriously beautiful to look at as all the characters look so realistic that I actually thought that these were real people being photographed into the artwork!  I also loved the fact that the colorings in this volume were mostly in black and white as it made the mystery and crime theme of this story truly stand out and I also loved the way that the magical elements in this story such as fire and wisps of magic are the only objects that are colored as it made the artwork much more imaginative.

What made me feel uncomfortable about this story:

The reason why I gave this volume a four star rating was because the story seems to drag on in many places and I found myself getting bored a bit with the story as there were not that many action scenes or any scenes that would keep my interest up and it seems like it was only towards the ending that the action really picks up.

Final Thoughts:

Overall, “Black Magick Volume One: Awakening” is a pretty interesting volume that introduces the reader to Rowan Black’s world of magic and mystery and I hope to read more of this series in the future to see where it goes next!