BeoWulf by Ronie Kendig | Books She Loves

Book 3 in the Breed Apart 

series by Ronie Kendig, doesn't disappoint!!

VIOLENCE: 

Military suspense type stuff. Hand to hand combat. People get beat up, shot down, blown up, and there's blood. Nothing terribly up-close gory. There is one scene where an explosion rocks a team, and a soldier's leg is almost blown off. He nearly bleeds out, there's a lot of blood and he's pretty traumatized when he comes to in the middle of it- clearly in a lot of pain.  

SEXUAL CONTENT: 

Timbrel has a few painful flashbacks from being raped- not really descriptive, more just the pain that she felt in the moment, or the breath of her abuser etc. 

Our two MC's fall in love. There's attraction between the two (duh, lol) several kisses, some more passionate than others. Nothing very steamy. 

CONCLUSION: 

Adrenaline, suspense, romance, conflict, cat and mouse, solving the mystery- this book has it all.
I loved Candyman & Timbrel as characters. They were relatable, lovable, colourful and unique. I found myself laughing over their blunders, and my heart cried when they weren't doing so hot. These characters are keepers that I will never forget, and will come back to re-read again and again! 

5 Stars, and I'd recommend it for readers 18+ 

A Spy's Devotion by Melanie Dickerson

Hands down, amazing YA Fiction book set in Regency England with a hint of spying & espionage, and a sweet romance on the side. 

VIOLENCE: 

Some manhandling and roughhousing take place with Julia's uncle, and a certain unwanted beau when he's intoxicated. There's an attempted assassination, a character is shot and there's blood. Nothing too graphic. 

SEXUAL CONTENT: 

Characters fall in love. As I think the author was writing this book with primarily Christian Young Adults, she kept the romance clean and innocent. The romance is fairly low key throughout the book.  A kiss is shared at the end that is more descriptive than- THEY KISSED- but...that's romance, my friends. If a semi-descriptive kiss at the end of the book is not your jam, skip it, yo. 

A character (married) tries approaching Julia during a party (he's intoxicated) and we can postulate that he has some inappropriate intentions involving himself and Julia. Nothing happens on that front. 

As Julia corresponds with a friend, said friend depicts her falling in love (or so she thinks) with a man...the correspondence continues throughout the book, and the friend tells Julia eventually that she ran away with said fellow and "gave myself to him fully". Her lover dumps her with a ruined reputation and pregnant with his child. 

CONCLUSION: 

I loved every minute of reading this book. It was a good break from reading all the contemporary suspense and get into the slower, more culturally romantic pace of Regency England, with some spying, espionage and romance thrown in there. The plot was fresh, the characters lovable, and overall this was a delightful YA read. I would recommend it for readers 13+. 

For more conservative young readers, yes, there's a tad of romance, and a...slightly passionate kiss at the end of the book, so for certain readers- that might not be their jam- but personally, this book was the bomb diggity of YA Regency Fiction! 

No One To Trust by Lynette Eason

Summary 

(taken from book cover): 

Summer Abernathy wakes up one morning to find her husband missing, three men in her home intent on finding him, and the life she's been living based on a lie. Which Kyle Abernathy did she marry? The computer programmer she met in line at the bank? Or the one who was apparently using that image as a cover? 

The search for her husband- and answers- takes Summer even deeper into a world of organized crime where people are used one moment and discarded the next. And with her deepest relationship of trust already shattered, Summer doesn't know who to believe. 

VIOLENCE: 

Hand to hand combat. Some explosions. People get shot, some at close range. There's an element of domestic abuse, and a recording a child plays with audio of their parent beating their sibling. Not in great detail, however. 

You can expect general violence that comes with the suspense genre, but nothing that gory or graphic. 

SEXUAL CONTENT: 

A few kisses are shared between our MC's. When the baddies break into the Abernathy's house at the beginning, one of the goons implies his sick intentions for Summer, but doesn't follow through with them. 

CONCLUSION: 

Overall, this book was...underwhelming. The plot sounded great, and I had high hopes for the characters, but apart from a few cool action scenes, this book just didn't cut it for me. 

I found the characters emotionally flat and hard to identify with because of that. 

The MC kept making comments that irked me...like when someone would ask if she was okay, she'd reply "I have to be" or stuff like that. Without being outright whiny, to me it just felt like she was being a baby and a tad bit entitled. It's just not an attractive quality. At all. 

And her being angry with her husband- I can understand the betrayal- but she just seemed like she was being immature about the whole situation- it was annoying. 

The plot was okay, but it didn't jump out and catch me with being fresh or unique. The villain was eh, and there was nothing that really stood out to me about the characters, plot, or writing style. 

Which, while we're on the writing style, Eason's writing didn't seem succinct enough to be suspense fiction. It would have been fine if she'd been writing general fiction or even historical fiction, but with the suspense genre, I was thinking the writing style would be a bit more to the point, using more powerful, eye catching vocabulary, and taking less time to explain certain situations. 

While there were a few cool action scenes, I wouldn't re-read this book, nor would I recommend it to other readers. Of course, the content explained above might not be annoying to another reader, so part of the "problem" with this book is subjective and will change with each reader. 

2 Stars. I didn't hate this book, but there was nothing that made me stand up and root for it. Ages 15 ish +