Dear Readers, February was a great month, I’m still in my reading groove. I completed my goal of 6 books this month, though I switched one of my TBR books with another I didn’t want to read 2 epic fantasy this month. I read 1 graphic novel, 1 horror, 2 science fiction and 2 new release thanks to Netgalley. I Read 2 books from a book series with Star Wars: The High Republic A Test of Courage the 1 middle grade book in the series, and Soul of Fire the 5^th book in the Sword of Truth Series. I read one 5 star book, three 4 star books, and two 3 star books.

Five Star Reviews:

A Test of Courage by Justina Ireland is a novel I was not expecting to give 5 stars, but the novel exceeded my expectations in numerous ways.  It did not pander to its middle grade readers but gave a solid Star Wars to that starred middle grade age characters. This Star Wars Novel taking place in the High Republic which is 200 years before A New Hope. A Test of Courage is the first middle grade novel released in the High Republic time setting. This book was great in it character study and does follow some adult themes as death a grief. There was a great moment where one character’s grief gets the best of him and starts gong towards the dark side of the force. I enjoyed this story and the 4 kids it follows who are all different and have some depth to their characters. The pacing made this a fast read for all 173 pages. I was happy to admit I didn’t always know where the story was going, which was a lot of fun. The characters are really compelling and the book ends in an exciting finish, that was a little shocking. The action scenes are fun and well described. 

Four Star Reviews:

Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama: A Memoir by Bob Odenkirk who’s famous for playing Saul Goodman in both Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, and has been influential in the Comedy Scene for the last 30 years writing for SNL, writing and performing on the Ben Stiller Show and Mr. Show with Bob and David. The book really captured his voice I could not help when I was reading it, hearing it told in Odenkirk’s unique voice. Bob Odenkirk’s book title states that this book is 3/4 comedy and 1/4 drama. So if you only know him from Breaking Bad prepare for a lifetime history in comedy before you get to the drama. This is not a mean autobiography, there is no celebrity he goes after for slighting him years ago, he toughest on himself. He portrays himself has humble and lucky to have the career that he has, he would rather you laugh at his jokes than be able to recognize him and remember his name. I learned a lot about his career and some of the sketches and shows that I never knew he was a part of.

The Paradox Hotel by Rob Hart is a trippy science fiction about time travel and how it can easily spiral out of control. Science Fiction Noir is the genre I would classify The Paradox Hotel under. In simplest terms is a murder mystery, but to make things more complex it is a murder that hasn’t taken place yet, and is trapped in time. This book is Inception meets Primer (an independent time travel movie, more people should see). This book cleverly looks at time travel and imagines it like space travel is currently going. The US developed NASA for space exploration in the 1960’s and now billionaires are privatizing space travel. The Paradox Hotel takes this approach with time travel, and has individuals that want to privatize it and break all the rules. The overall story is great and really clever

Green Arrow by Kevin Smith is just what you expect with Kevin Smith writing Green Arrow, a lot of sexual jokes at a plethora of Justice Leaguers, Some of the weirdest bad guys coming out of the woodwork, really smart observations about on life and death, and observations on teenage sidekicks. This is Kevin Smith’s second time writing for a comic book series, the first time was Daredevil. This is Kevin Smith’s first time writing for DC comics which he has a long standing relationship with. I enjoyed his two Batman Comics that feature a super villain he created in this run, Onomatopoeia, who will say the onomatopoeia like Bang! before he shoots. This book was the resurrection of Oliver Queen who died and his son Connor took the Green Arrow mantle. Oliver Queen had been dead for 5 and half years until this line of comics came out. The main part of the story deals with how Oliver came back and how he gets his memory back which is spotty at best.

Three Star Reviews:

Cherish Farrah by Bethany C. Morrow is a slow burn social horror. It looks at the social issues that arise when a Caucasian couple adopt an African American, it makes fear of how there own race will perceive the child and the couples own ideas on race manifested as real horrors. The book waits until the very end to make it’s point on race, and it’s powerful but it takes it to the last pages to get there, which frustrated me because I was in serious doubt this book would have a point at all. The book delivers on the tension, which is layered through out. There are twist which all play out at the end of the book. This book will get compared to the film Get Out which might hurt it as the plot of this book was good but not great like Get Out. The writing by Bethany C. Morrow is good in creating and keeping the tension through out small gestures layered in subtext conversations. Cherish Farrah horror is more cerebral with thinking people are out to get you then, people physically trying to get you. 

Soul of the Fire by Terry Goodkind is the 5th book in the Sword of Truth Series. Soul of Fire is a high fantasy epic adventure. This book is 50% more political than the other book so far, which the others have more of a mix of politics, adventure, romance and religion. This book toys with the reader, for the first time since the beginning of the series the three main characters are all together, Zedd, Kahlan, and Richard, and this moment last 20 -30 pages and their separated. I wanted this moment to last a lot longer. In Soul of the Fire the main characters of the series are side characters as Goodkind introduces three character we’ve never met before, and follow more than are main characters.