Chuckles Cover Love #115-Kerstin Gier

If there is one thing that makes a great book even better, it is when it has a cover that we love! The cover design is what catches the eye as we browse through a bookstore shelf or check out the Amazon or Goodreads recommendations. The right cover makes me look closer at a book, to read the blurb and maybe make a purchase. A poor cover might mean I never look at the blurb at all.

NB: I don't follow or leave comments on blogs run by Google Plus, or DISQUS as I refuse to join something just to leave comments, and I won't allow them to follow new people, update my profile or post tweets 'on my behalf'. I won't comment on any blog that makes me sign in using another account.   

This Week! 

I love the mixture of vivid colour and background scenery here!

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 reviews from earlier this year.

1) Catt Dahman-George's Terms (Z is for Zombie #1)
Set in Texas, most of the world’s population comes down with an infection with hemorrhagic effects that cause massive bleeding and then coma. Only, no one dies. The engineered infection has a nasty surprise waiting as prions cause holes to form in the brain and the enraged victims to go after loved ones and friends to feed and spread the infection. Quickly, the infected outnumber the healthy.

George, an older, retired policeman and his three elderly friends are suddenly called back into service along with a rag-tag group of survivors trying to get trained well enough to rescue all the survivors they keep finding. A retired Marine, Len, gathers his team with reluctance: Julia: a hot-tempered Hispanic girl, Alex: a gay man, Beth: a woman unsure of her place in the world, Roy: a racist with a bad attitude, Kimball: a quiet cowboy, and many others.

The story follows the strong characterizations as each survivor battles external forces and their own inner fears and morality; every action and choice now is far-reaching, they discover, and nothing is as simple as before.

I very much liked the start of the book with the retired men taking on the zombies and finding that their health puts them at a disadvantage. They try to help other people and then join up with a second group who are setting up a small community inside the hospital and gathering supplies and survivors from the local community. It is when everyone linked up that George and his friends went into the background of the story and barely featured, which was pretty disappointing. Instead we got racists and stupid idiots trying to take control of the group. 

Roy is a racist who stubbornly refuses to accept that a nuclear warhead exploding was not just an earthquake when they all see the mushroom cloud. Bryan was a sexist pig and everyone else seemed amused by his constant sexual harrassment of an irate Beth which made me mad. Len, the group leader turns out to be spineless when dealing with the idiots plotting against him and wanting to open the doors after a nuclear blast to get some air. Arnie is so thick that he can't tell the difference between a survivor and and a zombie with a gaping chest cavity wound. I got tired of the whiny idiots who don't seem to grasp what a zombie apocalypse and nuclear bombs mean. I DNFed around 50% of the book.

DNF January 2019
2 stars

2) Alex Hughes-Clean
I used to work for the Telepath’s Guild before they kicked me out for a drug habit that wasn’t entirely my fault. Now I work for the cops, helping Homicide Detective Isabella Cherabino put killers behind bars. My ability to get inside the twisted minds of suspects makes me the best interrogator in the department. But the normals keep me on a short leash. When the Tech Wars ripped the world apart, the Guild stepped up to save it. But they had to get scary to do it—real scary. Now the cops don’t trust the telepaths, the Guild doesn’t trust me, a serial killer is stalking the city—and I’m aching for a fix. But I need to solve this case. Fast. I’ve just had a vision of the future: I’m the next to die.

I read and very much enjoyed the prequel story for this series which is why I got this one but I admit to being disappointed with it. The MC who is not initially named is a recovering drug addict who keeps a stash in his home ready to use. He is also a telepath, kicked out of his job, who uses his talents to help a police detective solve her strangest cases and get confessions from suspects. The telepath part is very interesting and the setting of a futuristic Atlanta was a bit different but that is where the good things end for me.

The MC is very whiny about his situation and on virtually every page we are reminded of his habit and his addiction problems and I soon got tired of hearing about it. He was thinking about it, dealing with it and talking about it constantly and it bored me. His detective friend Isabella is the bitchy, rude, grumpy steriotype homocide detective who breaks rules when it suits her and is forever bitching at everyone. While I liked the MCs in the prequel, I got tired of both of them in this longer offering. It seems that later in the book the telepath starts pining for Isabella in a love manner so I'm kind of glad that I never got to that. I never felt any spark between them and she never seems to even like him. I also felt that we were sort of thrown into the futuristic Atlanta without a great deal of worldbuilding which left me feeling a bit adrift from the story. I just didn't connect with either the characters or the plot and I didn't quite get the whole description of Mindspace which I found confusing. Just not my thing. 

DNF January 2019
2 stars

3) Hunter Shea-The Devil's Fingers (OSEA #3)
WHAT HAS LONG PINK FINGERS AND SMELLS LIKE ROTTING FLESH?
It is a slime-covered fungus known for its pinkish red tentacles and pungent odor. It is indigenous to Australia but has spread to North America. Its Latin name is Clathrus Archeri, also known as Octopus Stinkhorn. Most people call it The Devil’s Fingers . . .

I DON’T KNOW BUT IT’S GROWING ON YOUR NECK.
Deep in the woods of Washington, botanist Autumn Winters stumbles onto a field of the luridly colored fungi. Two of her fellow campers make the mistake of touching it. Now it’s growing on them. Fleshy gelatinous pods. Sprouting from their skin. Feeding on their blood . . .

AND IT’S STILL GROWING.
Autumn watches in horror as her friends are transformed into monstrosities—grotesque, human-fungal hybrids as contagious and deadly as any virus. Autumn knows she must destroy these mutations before they return to civilization. But if there’s one thing that spreads faster than fear, it’s The Devil’s Fingers . . .

I loved all three of the Mail Order Massacres books by the author and a lot of his full length novels but I admit that I haven't loved this series of novellas titled as One Size Eats All. In Jurassic Florida and in this one I found the same issues, though Rattus New Yorkus was better. I like the idea of any kind of slithering nasty mass whether gliding over a lake or growing in a field like in this book. I liked what it actually did to the people and the actual plot interested me. Who wouldn't want to read about pods with pink tentacles that infect anyone who touches it? It is two of our group going off for some fun that night while drunk who don't notice where they have went who get infected and bring it back to the camp. I liked the idea.

What I didn't like were the characters. I honestly found myself not giving a damn about any of them. There was a feeling of angst throughout the group with the typical bickering that you get when a group of teens are out camping and getting drunk and high. I did wonder that they couldn't restrain themselves cosidering that they were out there so one of the group could scatter the ashes of his beloved dad in the lake. His friends seemed more intent on having a good time than supporting him. I can't say that I cared much for any of the characters in the book so I wasn't that bothered when they started dying off. I felt that after the initial infection, the book seemed to meander along as we waited for everyone to die. It wasn't the best offering from the author sadly but it doesn't put me off reading his other upcoming books or back catalogue.

Read February 2019
2 stars 

Puppy Love Challenge

This challenge is hosted by the lovely Barb over at http://bookertsfarm.blogspot.com/. It runs for the whole of February and all you have to do is read at least one book featuring a dog or cat, or a book where there is a dog or cat on the cover! Easy! Then do a wrap up post at the end of the month and link it to your book reviews so everyone can see what you thought of your books!

Last month I read Cruel Candy, Booked 4 Murder, Breakdown and A skeleton in the family. I DNFed The Dog and both Ryan Casey books. I didn't get round to A taste fur murder or Unexpected World.  

Chuckles Weekend Roundup

Welcome to my feature Chuckles Weekend Roundup where I will be looking at what books I've received, anything interesting I've done or bought or watched and other random stuff. I'll be taking a look back at what happened in my blogging world too, sort of like The Sunday Post that some of you do! 

Please note that I'll be visiting your STS/SP as normal, but I don't follow or leave comments on blogs run by Google Plus, or DISQUS as I refuse to join something just to leave comments, and I won't allow DISQUS to follow new people, update my profile or post tweets 'on my behalf'. I am the only one who does that on my social media! I won't comment on any blog that makes me sign in using another account. Sometimes, I have problems leaving messages on blogs hosted by Wordpress-they try to block me because I deleted my account with them but I will persevere as it only happens the odd time!

****************

This has been a really stressful week. Since last weekend I was worrying about my dentist appointment. I dragged myself in yesterday to face my fears only to find out to my embarrassment that my appointment was actually Tuesday and I'd missed it! To say I felt like an idiot was putting it mildly plus I have to wait two weeks for the next appointment! All that stress for nothing!!! Still I can forget about it for a while. Not much else happening except my spice rack is now up and the kitchen is finally tidy so nothing else needs to be done to it at the moment. At some point I'll clear the unwanted dishes out the cupboard to give me a little more space but there's no rush to do it. Today my dad is taking the junk to the dump which will clear the hall and give me space back.

On the book side of things, the only thing that arrived was another book in a series by Darrell Maloney that I'm following so I was very good! I did buy a few other things Game of Thrones related-a lovely soft throw to keep me cozy when I watch season eight this year. The picture I found of it isn't great and the colours are actually much better!

 

Then I bought these gorgeous things-I love wolves and I figured they looked like something the Starks would drink out of so I treated myself to these as well. I can have a nice drinky with them as I watch the new season!

Chuckles Blogging World

This week I decided to re-evaluate my blog and how I could better use my time. I'll be scheduling my posts during the week and catching up with all blog visits and answering comments at the weekends, leaving midweek free for other things. Hopefully I can find more time for reading and Pinterest!

Book Reviews 

I'm now writing reviews for the books I read in January!

George RR Martin-A Dance With Dragons

https://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.com/2019/02/book-review-dance-with-dragons-part-2.html

Saul Tanpepper-Gameland

https://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.com/2019/02/book-review-gameland-by-saul-tanpepper.html 

Chuckles Mini Reviews Catchup #1

https://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.com/2019/02/chuckles-mini-reviews-catchup.html

Chuckles Mini Reviews Catchup #2

https://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.com/2019/02/chuckles-mini-reviews-catchup_25.html

Regular Posts

As always I went Around The Blogs to see what everyone was posting. Cover Love featured Sarah Jean Horwitz, Top Ten Tuesday was about places that more books need to be set and Books From The Backlog looked at Lady Viper.

Chuckles Cover Love

https://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.com/2019/02/chuckles-cover-love-114-sarah-jean.html 

Around The Blogs With Chuckles

https://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.com/2019/02/around-blogs-with-chuckles_24.html 

Top Ten Tuesday

https://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.com/2019/02/top-ten-tuesday-places-more-books.html 

Books From The Backlog

https://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.com/2019/02/books-from-backlog-lady-viper.html

Discussion Posts

Changes to the blog

https://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.com/2019/02/changes-to-blog.html

Book Challenges 

Tackling The TBR

https://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.com/2019/02/tackling-tbr-final-update.html 

Reading Challenges 

https://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.com/2019/02/reading-challenges-february-final-update.html

Book Review Backlog Challenge

https://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.com/2019/02/book-review-backlog-challenge_28.html

Special Posts

Authors Behaving Badly

https://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.com/2019/02/authors-behaving-badly.html 

Film & TV

My dad and I have been watching Kunoichi, otherwise known as Women of Ninja Warrior. We plan to watch Sasuke next! I love watching with the Japanese commentary!

Book Tags/Blog Awards

none this week

Currently Reading/Up Next

I actually got more read than I thought-I finished Primordia 2, Cruel Candy, Breakdown and A skeleton in the family as well as DNFing The Dog and a couple of Ryan Casey books. Most of these were for the Puppy Love Challenge. This week it's a new month and I'm tackling a few winter adventures first!

FOLLOW ME:

https://www.bloglovin.com/blogs/chuckles-book-cave-9910183 
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/3426724-chucklesthescot 
https://twitter.com/chucklesthescot 
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/chucklesthescot/

March Reading

Whether we are getting spring weather or storms, there is still every excuse to curl up with a good book and read! Here are the books for the various challenges that I'm trying to get to this month. If I deal with them all, I'll be happy!

WORLD READS-Antarctica
1) Hunter Shea-Antarctic Ice Beasts
2) William Meikle-Operation Antarctica
3) Brad Harmer-Barnes-Tempest Outpost

ROYAL CHALLENGE
1) E Knight-My Lady Viper
2) Kate Emersen-The Pleasure Palace

SERIES CATCHUP
1) Jaye Wells-Green Eyed Demon
2) Jaye Wells-Silver Tongued Devil
3) Jaye Wells-Blue Blooded Vamp
4) Jaye Wells-Rusted Veins

PAPERBACK PURGE
1) Thomas E Sniegoski-The Demonists

E-BOOK ELIMINATOR
1) Suzanne Lazear-The Secret Lives of Rockstars 

FOR FUN
1) William Meikle-Infestation
2) JR Tate-Tornado Warning 
3) George RR Martin-Fire & Blood 

ALPHABET SOUP 
E: Bobby Adair-Ebola K
U: Chris Pike-Unexpected World
V: Matt Shaw-Voyage to Hell