Chuckles Mini Reviews Catchup

I review everything I read, on my blog and on Goodreads. Most reviews are of a decent length but sometimes you don't have much to say about the book because of its length or you DNFed it or various other reasons. In cases like that it makes sense to write a few mini reviews in one post and clear them out your way! So lets catch up with some reviews from August and September!

1) Jack Hunt-Final Impact 
Mankind has suffered five mass extinction events, the sixth will be our final. Days away from a catastrophic event that will end the world, five strangers find themselves stranded in the suicide capital of America dealing with the difficulties, regrets, and choices in their lives while trying to survive. Among the group is a talented performer, a petty thief, a gambler, a lady of the night and a hard working cab driver. With the clock ticking down, and a sliver of hope found in a text message, their only hope is to get out of the city and embark on a dangerous journey across the country together.  

Although the plot sounds grim and these people are facing the apocalypse, I liked the sound of it and was keen to read it. Basically, the government has had warning of an asteroid on collision course with Earth and against all expert advice tried to nuke it to change path. Instead it breaks into pieces and causes deadly earthquakes, and this one in Las Vegas traps survivors in the Luxor Hotel, trying to get off the upper floors and escape from the lift after the quake hits. The actual story of the quake, the coming asteroid that people know nothing of and the attempt to escape the hotel itself were fine. The trouble is there was way too much focus on the angst between the characters rather than the issues they face climbing down all the balconies. We are told most of that rather than being shown, instead getting more of the fighting which got a bit dull.

Felicity is an escort who decides to slip into the hotel and not pay taxi driver Aamir the fare she owes yet she is annoyed about him following her and ruining her day! Bitch, you owe the man over $60 and he is entitled to chase you up for trying to run off without paying! Zeke is the drugged up, heavy drinking magician whose shows have been poor enough to get him fired and replaced by a new talent. But of course Zeke thinks it was everyone else's fault and won't admit he was wrong or deserved it. Then he gets his stuff nicked by thief Dexter and is fighting with him when the quake hits. They spend the following chapters with Zeke being a diva and Dexter threatening him with a knife every time he gets annoyed. Then there is the racist obnoxious businessman Ben who owes money to loan sharks and is also stealing from the casino as they try to escape. The way he behaves to Aamir gets on my nerves, and Aamir is the only half decent character in the book. I can't be bothered with the rest and I lost interest in the book before I was halfway through. Disappointing that moronic characters fighting overtook the interesting events of the book.

Read September 2019
DNF 2 stars.

2) Jack Hunt-Darkest Hour 
When Logan and his family move from Dakota to the small town of Moab, Utah, he could have never imagined the devastating chain of events that would unfold and the unspoken danger lurking in the shadows. In a matter of days his family and the rest of the world are thrust into the darkness of a post-apocalyptic world full of terrifying threats at every turn. Fear everyone, trust no one. Now, in a town on the brink of collapse, Logan tries to grapple with the mystery surrounding the event that’s brought the country to its knees, and the arrival of a hidden threat that kills and spreads like wildfire. Joined with a ragtag group of survivors, their only hope is to run, fight and find out how to stop it before it’s too late. 


I went into this expecting the typical EMP survival book, community work together kind of thing that I enjoy but instead discovered that the EMP is actually pretty irrelevant in the story. It is actually an alien invasion YA story which is not what I was really looking for. It starts with a group of boys touching a fallen meteor and they become infected by the alien parasite and used as hosts. I'm not the greatest fan of YA at the moment but I did know that the MC was a teenage boy so that wasn't unexpected but there is no mention of the aliens in the blurb, which is strange. Not being a huge fan of alien invasion books, I wondered if I was going to struggle with this one, but in the end it was the YA angst that really annoyed me, not the aliens.

The plot is like the Lost Boys with aliens instead of vampires. Two teenage boys dragged away from their home and friends by their mother to live in a small town with her eccentric father, who likes playing tricks on the kids. At school, one of the boys is approached by the weird brothers who try to tell them that aliens are taking over the bodies of people in town and that others are missing in growing numbers. Of course Logan is too busy chasing Anna to listen to any of the warnings. There was the focus on their romance and the typical YA angst as Logan fights with his mother about not wanting to come to Moab, kids playing tricks on him because he is the new kid...the usual. All the great adult characters like Gramps the conspiracy theory guy who is watching the aliens, all take a backseat to the rather dull group of kids. I found it too much of the angst, and not enough solid plot with interesting characters and a few plot things that left me rolling my eyes. The pacing was sporadic with dull chunks in it and I just lost interest. 

Read September 2019
DNF 2 stars.

3) Jack Hunt-As We Fall
Sam Wade is on a trip to reconnect with his estranged daughter studying in Boston when the interconnected U.S. infrastructure is crippled by an unknown attacker. As the internet, communication networks and the power grid go down, the world is soon thrown into turmoil and danger. Faced with no other choice than to battle their way home through a country on the verge of collapse, Sam and his daughter will have to face more than a troubled past -- the future is deadly.

Sam the former Navy SEAL discovers his ex is sick and wants him to reconnect with the daughter he abandoned when she was eight. He is in town near her University when the EMP hits and he steps in to rescue her and her friend along with new transport worker Mason who is trying to rescue his wife who works on campus. The plan is to trek west to deliver Anna safely back to her mother but of course with the world ending, danger lurks on the roads in the form of gangs who will kill on sight. Sam has to use all his skills to get them safely to their destination safely but with Anna's grandfather also plotting his downfall from afar, even getting there won't mean safety.

Again for me the characters were the issue. We had Anna's evil grandfather who successfully drove a wedge betweeen Sam and Helen because he didn't approve of Sam. He is like a James Bond bad guy who wants to rule the world, or at least his town, and wants to destroy Sam's chance at connecting with Anna. I found him so annoying and the vendetta overshadows the apocalypse elements as the book goes on. I just wanted him to let it go and forget his stupid vendetta! Mason was my favourite character but I hated his self obsessed, vain, social climbing bitchy wife who wants him to conform to what she thinks is the ideal husband and has to have the interests she wants him to have. She was such a pain! Anna's attitude to Sam annoyed me though at least I could understand why she had issues with him, with all the lies she was told about him. I found a few of the plot moments a bit OTT but again the decent parts of the plot were overshadowed by the annoying characters. It seems the author likes to have angst between his characters rather than them working well as a group but I personally find it frustrating.

I still have a stand-alone book and one more series by this author to tackle and I'm just hoping that the characters are better in both of them.

Read September 2019
DNF 2 star.   

4) John W Vance-Death
It took just a few weeks for a plague called THE DEATH to wipe out over 90% of the world’s population. Devin is unaware that his fiancé is the first victim. Unprepared and unsuccessful he barely survives the initial days and takes refuge in a secluded barn. After six months he emerges from his self imposed quarantine to find that over 90% of the world's population is dead. With no knowledge or skills he must learn and adapt as he goes. As he travels, he discovers others like him who are immune but he must also confront that the world he knew is gone. A thousand miles away, Lori Roberts, a mother of two, wife and successful business woman must tackle the harsh realities The Death has imposed. Within weeks of the outbreak, her family is quarantined at a FEMA camp. At first they believe the camp is their sanctuary, but soon discover something entirely different and sinister is happening to the survivors. 

Asteroid Pandora hit Earth in 2020 and a scientific team sent to study it are stopped and innoculated by the government agency sent there too. The team become infected with a deadly virus that spreads and starts to kill almost everyone it comes into contact with. Now months later, those who are immune are starting to come into contact with each other and discover what is really going on. Devin is summoned to his sick girlfriend's side only to be told she is dead and he becomes obsessed with finding out what happened to her, while hiding from the world in a barn on his cousin's property. He comes into contact with survivor Tess and her dog Brando, and they set out into the world together. In a FEMA camp, there are rumours that those chosen each day are being sent to a better camp but Lori is starting to have fears about what is really going on.

The plot was interesting enough but again I was getting so annoyed by the characters. I got so tired of Devin's pure stupidity. I get he is not a prepper but the common sense is lacking. In spite of the apocalypse he made no attempt to learn how to use the gun he has and countless times he points it at people and forgets to remove the safety despite Tess telling him how to do it. He was so frustrating. He seems to have no use of his own senses, failing to see or hear danger around him and dragging Tess close to disaster each time. Tess is capable but she broke into Devin's home, her dog attacked him and she then ties him up AND leads raiders chasing her to his house. Yet there is no apology for any of it. But I also can't imagine why she is letting him tag along when he contributes nothing at all. He's a frustrating character. I couldn't get into Lori's story at all. One minute she was whiny, the next she wasn't. One minute she was sure the government was killing people but one word from her husband changed her mind. I found her pretty weak and not very interesting, and her part of the story dragged too much for me. I just didn't get into this at all.

Read September 2019
DNF 2 star.

5) Donna Galanti-Joshua and the Lightning Road
Twelve-year-old Joshua Cooper learns the hard way that lightning never strikes by chance when a bolt strikes his house and whisks away his best friend—possibly forever. Armed with only luck and his grandfather’s mysterious crystal, Joshua must save his friend by traveling the Lightning Road to a dark world that steals children for energy. New friends come to Joshua's aid and while battling beasts and bandits and fending off the Child Collector, Joshua’s mission quickly becomes more than a search for his friend—it becomes the battle of his life. 

I don't read kids books for the most part with the exception of Harry Potter, Artemis Fowl and H.I.V.E but when I saw the gorgeous covers I was so tempted to read it even though it was way outside of my comfort zone. I mean look at that amazing fox! There was lots of imagination in the plot with child snatchers and auctions, fire breathing foxes, scary creatures and bad guys. As a kid I would have loved this kind of read, I have no doubts about that. There was nothing much wrong with the actual writing, there was plenty happening to keep readers interested. For those who read a lot of middle grade books and enjoy that kind of read, I imagine that you would really enjoy this series. I just found that it didn't work for me personally but that is about my personal reading tastes rather than any problem with author or writing so don't let my rating put you off.

I had a few plot niggles though. We are told that Joshua is not allowed to touch his grandpa's crystals and to stay away from the windows during a storm. I did wonder why Bo Chez would leave the boys alone during the storm if he was that concerned. I wanted a little more about those warnings before we dived right nt. Suddenly in the loft during the storm, the child snatcher appears and grabs Finn and takes him away. We get told that this is the man from Joshua's nightmares but there was no mention of any nightmares in the previous pages to set the story. Why not have a prologue with Joshua dreaming about the man and his grandpa's warnings mixed in with that? It would have set the scene a bit better for me. These minor niggles weren't huge though. Overall it was a decent story and I'm sorry that it didn't grab me in the way I hoped it would. I'm sure plenty others will enjoy it.

Read August 2019
DNF 2 stars.