Gated is a fascinating glimpse into a cultish community whose leader has convinced them to remove themselves from a corrupt society to await the world’s inevitable end and that they are the worthy few who have been chosen to survive. This story is told from the perspective of Lyla, a teenager whose parents decided to follow the community’s strange yet charismatic leader, Pioneer, after the disappearance of their oldest daughter.

I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed Gated. Even after reading so many positive reviews, I wasn’t expecting to so quickly and easily be utterly caught up in the story of this strange community. I’ve always been intrigued, as I’m sure many people are, by cults and I’ve wondered what it is about these leaders that would cause moderately intelligent people to believe in their outrageous beliefs so wholeheartedly to the point that they entrust them with the safety and well-being of their children. I think that Gated explored this extremely well. While I loathed Lyla’s parents throughout most of the book because of the ridiculous amount of control over their lives that they willingly handed to Pioneer, I was also fascinated by their refusal to even consider any idea that challenged their beliefs. Also, the way that Lyla tried to force herself to trust that her parents were right and almost force herself to defend their way of life despite her own doubts was compelling. It wasn’t hard to connect with and feel for Lyla in the difficult situation she was faced with. 

The relationships between Lyla and her peers were a bit awkward and completely believable. Since Lyla seemed to struggle with so many doubts about things the others seemed to easily accept, it was difficult for her to feel fully connected to many of her peers. This may be the only time I will ever say that a love triangle worked. Of course, it wasn’t really a love triangle though, more like a young girl being pushed one way by outside forces but being pulled another by her own natural instincts and it felt entirely genuine. Even the dialog was perfect, she said some of the silliest things which was perfectly fitting for a girl who had been so very sheltered. One quote that made me actually laugh out loud was when the boy she wasn’t supposed to like gave her her first taste of Cheetos. 

"He's my Cheeto - bad for me, but now that I have a taste for him, I can't leave him alone."

 

While Lyla was clearly the main character, Pioneer definitely kept the story interesting. I kept asking myself, is he completely cracked out of his mind or is he some sort of mad genius? Whatever he was, he definitely had that creepy cult leader factor. I thought he was downright scary and any scene that included him made my skin crawl.

I wavered between a 4-5 star rating throughout the entirety of the book but because aspects of the ending didn’t work for me, I decided to go with 4 stars. The audio narration by Alicyn Packard was excellent, providing an authentic voice to the main character and keeping me engaged in the story. I would highly recommend this audio to anyone considering reading Gated. And I would certainly recommend reading Gated. I actually considered adding this to my “Best of 2013” list, if it weren’t for those few issues I had with the ending, I would have done so. 

Rating – 4 stars

Omens started out really strong. I was immediately drawn in to the drama surrounding Olivia finding out the truth about her birth parents and how her family reacted. I was fascinated with how she came to find Cainsville and with the town itself. I was loving the story all the way up through the halfway point but then it started to fall off a bit. What I had, up to that point, thought was going to be a paranormal thriller ended up being more of a conspiracy filled suspense drama. The paranormal elements were mentioned throughout but then went unexplored kind of leaving the reader hanging. The "reading omens" aspect was one of the best things about the book so when it went in a completely different direction than what I felt I was promised, I was left feeling a bit disappointed. 

I enjoyed the interaction between the two main characters. I like the relationship that's building between them and that it is not one of those instant-love situations. It took me a while to warm up to Gabriel, it happened at about the same rate that Olivia started looking at him differently, so I thought that was really well done. Gabriel has a lot of annoying traits and habits and Olivia views him very realistically which is refreshing. He is the more consistent of the two characters in the way his actions match his personality as I was led to understand it. Her actions are a bit more all over the place. 

It seemed like Omens promised one thing but delivered something very different. Maybe if I had been looking forward to suspense with a ton of conspiracy theory and convenient coincidences, I wouldn't have been left feeling underwhelmed by how Omens ended. I may still read the next book in the series with the hope that the paranormal aspects will be more prominent in future books in this series. I can see the potential for this to be an amazing series. I love the concept of a town like Cainsville and I do want to see where this series goes.

The Never List starts with a bang and ends with barely a fizzle. The first paragraph immediately grabbed me and drew me into the story. I wanted to empathize with these women who had been so unspeakably abused that their lives for years later was still affected. The main character found it difficult to even leave her house for groceries and couldn't bear human contact, not so much as a handshake...at first. But the erratic writing made it impossible for me to care about any of them. I felt like I was the one being tortured. Well....maybe not tortured, but definitely irritated. 

I think SOME of my disappointment with The Never List stems from the fact that it had been compared favorably with Gillian Flynn's thrillers. That was not the case, the only similarity was perhaps in the darker theme of the story. Otherwise, nothing about this book could be compared with Flynn's writing. One of the things I love about Flynn is the way she explores down to the darkest part of her damaged characters to find the things that motivate them. I found nothing resembling this kind of character depth in The Never List. These characters not only lacked depth, they lacked even the slightest bit of consistency. They acted in ways that made no sense whatsoever.

I have so many gripes, this review is probably going to be a bit all over the place. But then, so was most of this story. It bounced back and forth between past and present seemingly at random. Even though the reader is given glimpses of these women during and after their ordeal, the relationships between them is never effectively demonstrated. I did not have any grasp on their individual personalities or where their relationships with one another stood. 

After one absurdly contrived plot twist too many, I gave up even trying to enjoy this book. With the character inconsistencies, the contrived plot twists, convenient rescues (deus ex machina much?), info dumping, and a completely far-fetched and over reaching ending, it's easy to see that this is not a book I would recommend. Although I will say that my friend read it in a day and a half and loved it and I've read many other reviews that also rate it highly. Unfortunately, I am not a fan. I wish, with this fascinating premise, that the story would have been more cohesive because I can see where this could have been, in the right hands, an incredible book. 

There are so many 5 star ratings for Stolen that I'm almost hesitant to write my less than enthusiastic response. The writing was lovely, the characters were dimensional, but I did not connect with them emotionally like this book seemed to require in order to fully enjoy this. The one thing that definitely comes across in Stolen is the emptiness and the hopelessness that Gemma was feeling. It was easy to understand how confused she must have been, yearning for human contact yet not being able to fully trust that he wouldn't cut her into pieces and feed her to his camel. The camel, by the way, was my favorite character in Stolen. I did like that the kidnapper was not shown as some tyrannical monster but that the reader was able to somehow sympathize with his motivations even while knowing his actions were unforgivable.

Mostly I just thought that it would be horrible to be kidnapped to such a barren landscape with no books, internet, or anything to distract from the kidnapper who keeps weeping at me. The kidnapper's emotional vulnerability was a bit much and annoyed me almost as much as the slow pace of the story. I was partly offended on Gemma's behalf and partly amused when she would try to escape and Ty (weepy kidnapper) would sigh in boredom and act like "Really Gemma? Again? Can you leave a good trail this time for when I have to rescue you....again." And he would just let her go without much protest knowing she wasn't getting anywhere. 

I will say that Gemma was not completely docile, nor did she quietly come to terms with her fate. The Stockholm Syndrome aspect of Stolen was definitely well done and quite believable. I can see why so many people loved this story and I wish I could have liked it more. Ultimately, it was like the barren landscape it described, it's beauty was only visible to those who were meant to be there. As I said though, I really did like that camel!!

I've had friends jokingly tell me that I rate EVERYTHING a 3. I find, so often, that books that are super popular and everyone is screaming about are just kinda okay for me. It makes me wonder if maybe I'm too picky or if I'm missing something, some connection, that everyone else is getting. But then I pick up a book like I Hunt Killers and it reminds me of why I reserve those 5 star ratings. Books like this remind me of why I love reading so much. 

I absolutely lost myself in this story from the very beginning. I was immersed, riveted, completely out of commission for anything outside of finishing this book, which I did in just a day. Jasper Dent was one of the most fascinating characters I've read recently. Raised to be a serial killer by his serial killer father, Jasper now analyzes his every thought, his every action, trying to determine if he will follow in his father's footsteps, if he too is a sociopath. To be raised like that would undeniably cause irreparable damage to a child, and Jasper is no exception. Luckily, the detective that caught his father has kind of become a mentor to Jasper. When another serial killer seems to be operating in his small town, Jas is forced to confront those feelings and explore that darker side of himself.

While the story within I Hunt Killers was intriguing, it was the characters and the relationship between them that grabbed me and held me and makes me want to read more. From Jas' crazy grandmother, to his sick twisted father, to the gruff detective who feels sorry for Jas, each character has dimension and allure that pulls a reader further into this dark and often quite scary story. I can't wait to read the next book in this series. I would absolutely recommend this to everyone who enjoys dramatic thrillers and fans of shows like Criminal Minds.