*NEW RELEASE SPECIAL* Review of NETGALLEY arc And Justice for Mall – Book 4 of the Jersey Girl Legal Mystery series by E.J. Copperman #BrainfluffNETGALLEYbookreview #AndJusticeforMallbookreview

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the previous books I’ve read in this entertaining cosy mystery series – see my reviews of Inherit the Shoes and Witness for the Persecution – so when I spotted this one on the Netgalley dashboard, I immediately requested it.

BLURB: When Riley Schoenberg strides into family lawyer Sandy Moss’s office without knocking and coolly sits down, Sandy’s more irritated than amused. She has a client meeting to prepare for, and being interrupted by an eleven-year-old girl is not on her to-do list.
But then Sandy hears Riley’s pitch, and it’s a killer one: Riley’s father’s been convicted of murdering her mother . . . and the oddly intimidating pre-teen will do anything to get him out of jail.

Sandy, in turn, will do anything to get Riley out of her office. Which includes agreeing to look into her dad’s case for free. A decision she regrets when it turns out Riley’s inheritance has made her a multi-millionaire. Still, Sandy’s determined to get Riley the answers she needs. There’s just one tiny problem: Riley might be convinced her father’s innocent, but Jack Schoenberg is insisting he did it.

REVIEW: Yet another legal tangle for our feisty heroine, Sandy Moss, to solve. It could so easily be full of fraught, angsty emotions – after all there isn’t anything at all funny about a pre-teen with a murdered mother desperate to get her convicted father out of prison. But somehow, Copperman’s protagonist manages to make almost all the situations she gets herself in genuinely funny – without diminishing the upset surrounding said situations.

Young Riley certainly tugs at our heartstrings – though not because she breaks down and weeps. She’s had a hard time of it since her mother’s death and doesn’t wear her heart on her sleeve. I found her tough front particularly poignant, given that children of her age shouldn’t have to be so streetwise and wary of their emotions. So when she does crack, it’s a big deal and I thought Copperman dealt with her character really well, having spent time with children of her age who have also suffered a similar lack of love.

As for Sandy, she is also house-hunting with the love of her life, gorgeous actor Patrick McNabb. It rapidly gets very complicated, as Sandy is frankly overwhelmed with the outlandish luxury that Patrick is accustomed to, yet she also is mindful that he’s got a lot of stuff that needs room. So they need to find somewhere large enough for their needs, but not too large and overblown – and she’s also aware that if she finds something that she wants, Patrick will immediately agree to it whether he likes it or not. I found this sub-plot endearing and a bit of light relief when events take a sudden, darker turn. Perhaps it’s Copperman’s gift of making sure there are lighter moments while the rest of Sandy’s investigations are getting dangerous that keeps the humour coming, without it appearing crass or insensitive.

I thought the denouement worked well and that the main murder mystery was successfully tied up. There’s a possible cloud on the horizon regarding Sandy’s happiness that I may have spotted… I’m hoping I’m wrong. But I can’t wait to dive into the next book, anyway, because there’s bound to be tension and adventure, alongside Sandy’s lovely dry humour. Recommended for fans of legal murder mysteries with a splash of ironic humour. While I obtained an arc of And Justice for Mall from the publishers via Netgalley, the opinions I have expressed are unbiased and my own.
9/10

Review of NETGALLEY arc The Immortality Thief by Taran Hunt – Book 1 of The Kystrom Chronicles #BrainfluffNETGALLEYbookreview #TheImmortalityThiefbookreview

I’m always a sucker for a cracking good space opera thriller – and the cover and the blurb had me looking forward to this offering. Would it deliver?

BLURB: Refugee, criminal and linguist Sean Wren is made an offer he knows he can’t refuse: life in prison, “voluntary” military service – or salvaging data in a long-dead language from an abandoned ship filled with traps and monsters, just days before it’s destroyed in a supernova. Data connected to the Philosopher’s Stone experiments, into unlocking the secrets of immortality.

And he’s not the only one looking for the derelict ship. The Ministers, mysterious undying aliens that have ruled over humanity for centuries, want the data – as does The Republic, humanity’s last free government. And time is running out. In the bowels of the derelict ship, surrounded by horrors and dead men, Sean slowly uncovers the truth of what happened on the ship, in its final days… and the terrible secret it’s hiding.

REVIEW: I’ll be honest – when I finally got around to reading this one, I wasn’t really in the mood for a creepy deserted space ship, which I’ll own is my problem rather than anything wrong with the writing. So it’s a testament to the author’s skill that by the time I was a quarter of the way into this one, I was thoroughly hooked.

The reason why I found myself so wrapped up in this adventure is that I became thoroughly invested in Sean. The main protagonist is masterfully handled by Hunt. In the early stages of the book, I found him hard work. His ‘cheeky chappie’ façade started to wear thin very quickly – and by their reactions, I realised the other crew of Viper felt much the same way. But as the book wore on, I began to appreciate that Sean’s wisecracking, irreverent attitude hides a deep belief in the sanctity of life. And a strong sense that the dumb stroke of luck that allowed him to survive the massacre of his family, friends and neighbours has left him with a need to pass it on whenever he finds someone wanting help. Hunt does a really good job in conveying this belief without portraying Sean as some futuristic Pollyanna.

I also got thoroughly caught up in learning more about the two other characters Sean finds himself sharing his terrifying adventures with – initially, they both seem utterly horrible and extremely dangerous. In fact, they remain extremely dangerous throughout, which provides some interesting plot twists along the way. I’m aware that I’ve only really discussed the characters – but this is principally an action adventure novel, brimful of action set on a derelict space ship on the brink of catastrophic disaster. And it provides plenty of tension and nasty surprises along the way, which makes for an engrossing page-turner I found hard to put down.

A completely unexpected twist right at the end has me keen to read the next book in this series and it comes very highly recommended for fans of tension-filled space opera adventure with memorable, excellently portrayed characters. While I obtained an audiobook arc of The Immortality Thief from the publishers via Netgalley, the opinions I have expressed are unbiased and my own.
10/10

Can’t-Wait Wednesday – 23rd November, 2022 #Brainfluffbookblog #CWC #WOW

Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted at Wishful Endings, to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about that we have yet to read. Generally they’re books that have yet to be released. It’s based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by the fabulous Jill at Breaking the Spine.

This week’s Can’t-Wait offering – The Luminaries by Susan Dennard – release date – 26th January, 2023

#YA #magic adventure #feisty heroine

BLURB: Hemlock Falls isn’t like other towns. You won’t find it on a map, your phone won’t work here, and the forest outside town might just kill you…

Winnie Wednesday wants nothing more than to join the Luminaries, the ancient order that protects Winnie’s town―and the rest of humanity―from the monsters and nightmares that rise in the forest of Hemlock Falls every night. Ever since her father was exposed as a witch and a traitor, Winnie and her family have been shunned. But on her sixteenth birthday, she can take the deadly Luminary hunter trials and prove herself true and loyal―and restore her family’s good name. Or die trying.

But in order to survive, Winnie must enlist the help of the one person who can help her train: Jay Friday, resident bad boy and Winnie’s ex-best friend. While Jay might be the most promising new hunter in Hemlock Falls, he also seems to know more about the nightmares of the forest than he should. Together, he and Winnie will discover a danger lurking in the forest no one in Hemlock Falls is prepared for. Not all monsters can be slain, and not all nightmares are confined to the dark.

I thoroughly enjoyed Truthwitch and Windwitch, so when I saw this one on Tammy’s blog, I immediately nicked across to Netgalley to see if it was available – and was delighted when I was approved for an arc. It sounds as if there’s a slight Hunger Games vibe going on, which I’m happy about if it’s being handled by an experienced author like Dennard.

*NEW RELEASE SPECIAL* Review of NETGALLEY AUDIOBOOK arc The Thirty-One Doors by Kate Hulme #BrainfluffNETGALLEYbookreview #TheThirty-OneDoorsbookreview

I’ve a weakness for country house historical murder mysteries and that intriguing cover set in a very snowy landscape caught my eye. So I was delighted when I received an audiobook arc for this tale.

BLURB: Scarpside House is famed for its beauty, its isolation and its legendary parties.
Tonight, it hosts the Penny Club soiree, an annual gathering of lucky men and women from all walks of life, coming together to celebrate their survival against the odds.
But this year, their luck is running thin. Accidents do happen, after all….
And some are long overdue….

REVIEW: The premise is a very familiar one – there’s a country house full of guests with murky pasts which make them either liable to murder their fellow party-goers, or be murdered due to something they’ve done. And no… when it becomes obvious that there’s a serial murderer on the loose, they can’t just rush to the front door and summon their chauffeur, because this house can only be accessed by a funicular ride. And someone sabotages it after our plucky detective arrives.

I wanted to like this one more than I actually did. Hulme’s prose is lush and highly descriptive, both of her characters and Scarpside House, evidently going for a gothic vibe. However this sub-genre demands loads of tension and fraught sense of wrongness, tipping into horror at times. That means that the reader needs to be invested in at least the main character, so that when Detective Sergeant Frank Glover is in peril, or at least struggling with the investigation – we need to care. Despite David Morley Hale’s excellent narration, I never really bonded with Glover. I found his initial aloofness towards the recently bereaved guests rather off-putting. We spent a great deal of time in his head as he roamed around Scarpside House on a ceaseless hunt for clues, when he mused about the loss of his mother as a small boy and his feelings for a young woman who was caught up in a previous case he was working on. I thought him rather self-absorbed and didn’t like him all that much. This was a problem as we are clearly supposed to care about him when he gets into several dangerous situations. Whereas I worried more about poor Dotty.

The other issue is the constant over-description of the house. Hulme clearly has a vivid visual imagination, but I really didn’t need an intricate description of the colour of the walls in every single bedroom or the curtains, cushions and carpets. It defuses much of the tension built up by the growing body count. The creepy atmosphere caused by the snowstorm and the knowledge that there is at least one highly dangerous person roaming around the building is also compromised by the over-long descriptions as it slows the pace far too much and took my attention away from what really matters.

I wasn’t convinced that Glover would have co-opted Dotty, the servant in quite the way he did – but I was prepared to suspend my disbelief on that score as she is the only person in the book I really liked. The tone of murder mystery did seem rather overblown at the beginning, instead of building up that sense of dark wrongness that permeates a gothic thriller, so I wondered if Hulme would pull off a successful denouement that adequately explained all the rather elaborate and varied styles of killing. I think she manages it, just about.

I’m aware that writing a classic murder mystery these days, with a nod to those who went before, takes a great deal of technical skill. While I was never tempted to DNF this one, as I was invested sufficiently to stick to the end to discover whodunit, I do think Hulme’s editor should have been more rigorous with the red pen and murdered a few more of her descriptive passages along with the various victims. While I obtained an audiobook arc of The Thirty-One Doors from the publishers via Netgalley, the opinions I have expressed are unbiased and my own.
7/10

*NEW RELEASE SPECIAL* Review of NETGALLEY arc Sorcerer’s Edge – Book 3 of The Tethered Citadel series by David Hair #BrainfluffNETGALLEYbookreview #SorcerersEdgebookreview

I loved the first two books in this highly readable epic fantasy adventure – Map’s Edge and World’s Edge, so I was delighted when the publisher contacted me and asked if I’d like an arc of this final book.

BLURB: After all they’ve suffered, rebel sorcerer Raythe Vyre and his fortune-seekers are still empty-handed, but they’ve found real treasure: peace.

Deep inside the Ice wastes, Raythe’s people stumbled upon Rath Argentium, the legendary Aldar city, and the long-lost Tangato people. After fighting through betrayal, treachery and powerful magic, they forged a hard-won treaty with the Tangato and their extraordinary queen, Shiazar. Now they’ve put aside their dreams of wealth and revenge and embraced something better: a life outside the tyrannical Bolgravian Empire. But the Bolgravian Empire never gives up.

The empire hasn’t forgotten Raythe Vyre, and his enemies know where he is. Guided by Toran Zorne, the implacable imperial assassin, they are coming to claim Rath Argentium for themselves. Raythe and Shiazar know all too well that courage and cunning won’t be enough this time: they are outnumbered, out-gunned and out of time. Faced with total annihilation, it’s up to Raythe to find an edge . . .

REVIEW: In many ways, this epic fantasy has a slightly old-school feel. That isn’t bad by any means – I’ve loved the strong story-telling, the constant plots twists and intelligent character progression throughout. And I particularly enjoyed The Story So Far… summation at the start, which nicely reminded me of a number of details that I’d have forgotten. A pity that other authors don’t do it – though I suppose they are worried about readers coming across this one without having read the previous books and thinking that a condensed account would suffice. If you do encounter this one without having read the previous books, despite the handy catch-up notes, my firm advice would be to put this offering down and track down Map’s Edge instead. This classy, well-written adventure is far too good to compromise by not reading it in its entirety.

Over the previous two books, there are a handful of outstandingly unpleasant antagonists that I’ve loved to hate. So it was enjoyable to be confronted with them again – and this time around in far more detail, so that I got to know exactly what their motivations were. Once more, Hair has taken some of my assumptions, played with them and bounced them on their head, which put a certain powerful woman in a completely different light. I love it when that happens. The story starts with a bang and goes on delivering yet more surprises and shocks so that instead of going to bed at a reasonably sensible time, I stayed up faaar too late into the night to discover what happened next.

The setting is vividly realised, the characters nicely complex and changing in reaction to the privations and danger they’ve been undergoing, and the plotting masterfully handled. All in all, this is a cracking ending to an excellent epic fantasy adventure that I’ve loved from start to finish. Very highly recommended. While I obtained an arc of Sorcerer’s Edge from the publisher via Netgalley, the opinions I have expressed are unbiased and my own.
10/10

Can’t-Wait Wednesday – 16th November, 2022 #Brainfluffbookblog #CWC #WOW

Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted at Wishful Endings, to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about that we have yet to read. Generally they’re books that have yet to be released. It’s based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by the fabulous Jill at Breaking the Spine.

This week’s Can’t-Wait offering – City of Last Chances by Adrian Tchaikovsky – release date – 8th December 2022

#fantasy #political intrigue

BLURB: There has always been a darkness to Ilmar, but never more so than now. The city chafes under the heavy hand of the Palleseen occupation, the choke-hold of its criminal underworld, the boot of its factory owners, the weight of its wretched poor and the burden of its ancient curse.

What will be the spark that lights the conflagration? Despite the city’s refugees, wanderers, murderers, madmen, fanatics and thieves, the catalyst, as always, will be the Anchorwood – that dark grove of trees, that primeval remnant, that portal, when the moon is full, to strange and distant shores. Ilmar, some say, is the worst place in the world and the gateway to a thousand worse places.

Ilmar,
City of Long Shadows.
City of Bad Decisions.
City of Last Chances.
Tchaikovsky is always worth reading. A prolific author with an impressively varied range in his writing – his best work includes Children of Time, The Expert System’s Brother, Ironclads, Dogs of War, The Doors of Eden, Firewalkers, Bear Head, Spiderlight and Ogres. Even if I don’t always completely fall in love with his work, I often still find myself thinking about it long after I’ve finished it. So I’m really looking forward to tucking into this one.

Review of NETGALLEY arc What Song the Sirens Sang – Book 3 of the Gideon Sable series by Simon R. Green #BrainfluffNETGALLEYbookreview #WhatSongtheSirensSangbookreview

I’m a fan of Green’s writing. See my reviews of his Ishmael Jones series, featuring an alien dark ops agent and his alluring sidekick, Penny, in Buried Memories, The Dark Side of the Road, Very Important Corpses, Death Shall Come, Into the Thinnest of Air, Murder in the Dark, Till Sudden Death Do Us Part, Night Train to Murder, The House on Widow’s Hill and his paranormal James Bond hero in The Man With the Golden Torc. I also thoroughly enjoyed the first two books in this fantasy heist series, The Best Thing You Can Steal and A Matter of Death and Life– so I was delighted when this offering appeared on the Netgalley dashboard.

BLURB: You can find everything you’ve ever dreamed of in the strange, old magical shop known as Old Harry’s Place. The problem is, not all dreams are kind. Gideon Sable – legendary master thief, conman and well-dressed rogue – and his partner in crime Annie Anybody don’t want to be shopkeepers, but when the enigmatic Harry decides to retire, he blackmails the pair into taking the store on.

Before the grand reopening can happen, however, a menacing stranger arrives – with a rare and deadly item for them to appraise. A small piece of rock, with an unnerving aura, which ‘Smith’ claims contains the last echoes of the legendary sirens’ song. Before they can find out more, however, Smith vanishes . . . leaving only the stone. Some valuables are more trouble than they’re worth. But before Gideon and Annie can work out if they’ve been set up, the stone is stolen from its impregnable hiding place. How? And why? Gideon only knows one thing for certain: no one steals from him and gets away with it . . .

REVIEW: This paranormal heist adventure can be read as a standalone, as Green ensures his readers aren’t left floundering – but in order to be fully invested in the characters, I’d advise that you read the two previous before diving into this one. I’m a solid fan of this author, because despite writing a rather dark world full of bloodshed and violence, there is always a humorous quirkiness to the tone that ensures that said darkness never becomes overwhelming or too bleak. And given that a great deal of SFF is on the darker side, I’ve found Green’s lighter touch immensely attractive over the years.

His tendency to humour doesn’t prevent Green from delivering yet another twisty, action-packed adventure where our plucky protagonists are flung (literally, courtesy of a magical mirror) into a highly dangerous situation. I am very fond of Gideon and Annie Anybody, so once more found the pages turning more or less by themselves as they find themselves confronted by a satisfyingly obnoxious antagonist, who has the capability to do them real harm. The denouement brings the adventure to a pleasing close – although I’m not sure that ‘happily ever after’ is on the cards for everyone in Gideon’s team. There is a new addition to the gang who I think is going to wreak havoc to their rather fragile dynamic – and I’m waiting for the next book in this entertaining series to see if I’m right! Highly recommended for fans of paranormal heist adventures that don’t take themselves so seriously that you give up the will to live halfway through. While I obtained an arc of What Song the Sirens Sang from the publishers via Netgalley, the opinions I have expressed are unbiased and my own.
9/10

Review of NETGALLEY arc Deadly Spirits – Book 3 of the Maddie Pastore Mystery series by Mary Miley #BrainfluffNETGALLEYbookreview #DeadlySpiritsbookreview

I’ve become a solid fan of this series – see my reviews of The Mystic’s Accomplice and Spirits and Smoke – so I was delighted when I saw this offering pop up on Netgalley. I’ve been reading a lot of historical murder mysteries recently – and this one encompasses one of my favourite eras – the 1920s.

BLURB: Summer, 1924. Young widow Maddie Pastore has been working for fraudulent spiritual medium Madame Carlotta for nearly a year – if ‘work’ you could call it. Investigating Carlotta’s clients, and attending seances as her shill, keeps Maddie and her young son Tommy fed and clothed, and she’s grown to love the kind, well-meaning spiritualist like family.

Still, Maddie – estranged from her abusive parents for over a decade – can’t help but wonder what fates befell her brothers and sisters. So when she lucks into two free tickets to a glamorous Chicago speakeasy and recognizes the star performer as her pretty little sister Sophie, she’s beyond delighted. But before Maddie can meet with Sophie again, the telephone rings. It’s Sophie’s husband, calling in a panic to tell her that his wife is locked in the Cook County jail, charged with first-degree murder . . .

REVIEW: I was thrilled to once more spend time with one of my favourite protagonists, Maddie Pastore. Widowed just weeks before giving birth to her son, Maddie has had a busy year keeping herself and baby Tommy from starving in 1920s Chicago at the height of Prohibition. She lives with spiritual medium Madam Carlotta and in return for bed and board, Maddie discovers details about Madam Carlotta’s clients before they attend her seances that she can use to convince them she’s the real deal. Endearingly, Madam Carlotta knows she is genuine and feels called to help the bereaved by relaying comforting messages from their dead departed – and very occasionally, those messages do seem to come from the other side. However, more often that isn’t the case, so Maddie and young Freddie resort to tricks to keep Madam Carlotta’s clientele happy.

Maddie isn’t particularly proud of what she does, but is fond of Madam Carlotta and grateful for having a place to stay where she and her baby are looked after and well fed. This being Chicago during a very violent time, it isn’t surprising that in her line of work, Maddie comes across occasional unsolved murders. And one that becomes her priority is a case in which her talented younger sister has been entangled. Far too many details don’t make sense – but the police aren’t willing to look any further when a young woman holding the murder weapon is conveniently placed at the murder scene.

This page-turning whodunit held me from the first page until the last, providing several satisfying surprises along the way. I certainly didn’t peg the murderer until all was revealed and once again, having gangsters like Al Capone make an appearance added extra tension to the story. I love Maddie’s can-do practicality and the way Miley also weaves real historical figures into her murder mysteries. While this is the third book in the series and I strongly recommend you read them all – they are far too good to pass up – you wouldn’t unduly flounder if you haven’t had the pleasure of tucking into the previous adventures. Highly recommended for fans of historical murder mysteries, particularly those set during the Prohibition era. While I obtained an arc of Deadly Spirits from the publishers via Netgalley, the opinions I have expressed are unbiased and my own.
9/10

Review of NETGALLEY arc A Taste of Gold and Iron by Alexandra Rowland #BrainfluffNETGALLEYbookreview #ATasteofGoldandIronbookreview

It was the comparison with The Goblin Emperor that snagged my attention to this particular offering. It’s one of my favourite fantasy political intrigue reads of all time, so I was very happy to dive into anything else that might strum that vibe. Would I be disappointed?

BLURB: Kadou, the shy prince of Arasht, finds himself at odds with one of the most powerful ambassadors at court—the body-father of the queen’s new child—in an altercation which results in his humiliation.

To prove his loyalty to the queen, his sister, Kadou takes responsibility for the investigation of a break-in at one of their guilds, with the help of his newly appointed bodyguard, the coldly handsome Evemer, who seems to tolerate him at best. In Arasht, where princes can touch-taste precious metals with their fingers and myth runs side by side with history, counterfeiting is heresy, and the conspiracy they discover could cripple the kingdom’s financial standing and bring about its ruin.

REVIEW: This one immediately jumps into the story, to the extent that I wondered if there was a previous book in the series that I’d missed. There wasn’t, so I settled in and before long I was utterly hooked. Kadou is an interesting male protagonist. Highly strung and prone to fits of nervous prostration that leave him with devastating self-loathing, he is all too aware that he doesn’t deal effectively with the cadre of elite bodyguards trained to tend to his every need. In fact, he doesn’t feel that he does anything all that effectively. And that’s a real problem right now, because there has been a worrying break-in that unaccountably isn’t being properly dealt with. It doesn’t help that his sister, the ruling matriarch of their land, has recently given birth to a daughter, so she passes the task for looking into this problem to Kadou. During a hunting trip, there is a disastrous event that leads to the death of two of his guards and the disgrace of his captain. So there is a vacancy for the newly qualified and utterly dedicated over-achiever, Evermer.

I’ll be honest – the growing relationship between Evermer and Kadou wasn’t the main reason for picking this one up and I was far more interested in the conspiracy and Kadou’s interestingly conflicted personality. That said, the romance is skilfully handled. While there is the inevitable misunderstanding that characterises their early relationship, the growing attraction between them is portrayed with tenderness and humour that won me over to the extent that by the end of the book I was thoroughly rooting for the couple to overcome the hurdles ranged against them.

I enjoyed the magic, where some adepts are able to trace the purity of metals they touch while some are gifted, or cursed, with the ability to know if someone is lying. However, I did feel the intricacies of the magic system was a bit under-developed and I would have liked to know more about how many of the population had magic, for instance. And whether Kadou’s synesthetic experience regarding his magical talent is the norm. The book also ended rather abruptly – I strongly feel there should be a second book in the offing to complete the narrative arc, though there isn’t any sign that this is a series on Goodreads or Amazon. And for both these reasons, I have knocked a point off what would have been a ten for me, with a compelling, complicated character and a lushly written backdrop that doesn’t hold up the action. This author is One to Watch and comes highly recommended. While I obtained an arc of A Taste of Gold and Iron from the publishers via Netgalley, the opinions I have expressed are unbiased and my own.
9/10

Review of NETGALLEY arc Mindwalker by Kate Dylan #BrainfluffNETGALLEYbookreview #Mindwalkerbookreview

That eye-catching cover snagged my attention and I thought the premise looked intriguing – though I have tweaked and shortened the rather chatty blurb.

BLURB: Eighteen-year-old Sil Sarrah is determined to die a legend. In the ten years she’s been rescuing imperilled field agents for the Syntex Corporation—by commandeering their minds from afar and leading them to safety—Sil hasn’t lost a single life. And she’s not about to start now.

She’s got twelve months left on the clock before the supercomputer grafted to her brain kills her, and she’s hell-bent on using that time to cement her legacy. Sil’s going to be the only Mindwalker to ever pitch a perfect game—even despite the debilitating glitches she’s experiencing. But when a critical mission goes south, Sil is forced into a situation that for all her tactical knowhow and experience – came as a complete and very unpleasant surprise…

REVIEW: I really liked the premise that Sil’s impressive additions come at a huge cost. It made sense to me that a child’s brain, with its inherent plasticity, would be ideal to work on. And the fact that Syntex has managed to find a way around the law so their representatives can persuade suitable eight-year-olds to sign all the permissions necessary to be turned into a super-agent also rings true. As for Sil – I found her grim acceptance of her impending death at the ripe old age of nineteen both poignant and gutsy.

This is aimed at the YA market, so the narration is in first person and the overall story arc follows a familiar route. That said, Sil isn’t as emotional or self-absorbed as YA heroines often are. And while I wasn’t particularly invested in the inevitable romance, as it wasn’t the aspect of the book that really interested me, it was well handled and I believed in the ups and downs of the relationship between two wary, battle-scarred young people.

What did drive me to keep turning the pages in this well-paced, enjoyable science fiction adventure, was Sil’s ongoing battle to stay ahead of those who wanted to get hold of her and shut her down. And while I did see the final twist coming before it finally dropped – there were ramifications that still managed to surprise me and raise the stakes still higher. All in all, this is an engrossing read about a post-apocalyptic future that is frightening and plausible, which I found hard to put down. Recommended for fans of dystopian near-future adventures featuring a likeable heroine. While I obtained an arc of Mindwalkers from the publishers via Netgalley, the opinions I have expressed are unbiased and my own.
9/10