Inhaltsangabe

Eine unberührte Naturlandschaft. Eine fast vergessene Legende. Eine Brut direkt aus der Hölle, die einen harmlosen Abenteuerurlaub in ein blutiges Schreckensszenario verwandelt. Larissa bricht mit drei Freunden zu einem Campingtrip in die rumänischen Karpaten auf. Fantastische Naturimpressionen, Lagerfeuerromantik und verrücktspielende Hormone sorgen für eine ausgelassene Stimmung, die auch nicht von der Legende des sogenannten ›Albino Devils‹ getrübt wird, von der Medizinstudent Marc erzählt. Schnell jedoch hält der Trip in die Berge mehr Abenteuer für die Gruppe bereit, als ihnen lieb ist. Zudem bemerkt Larissa, dass Marc ein Geheimnis verbirgt. Bald schon entwickelt sich der Ausflug zu einem blutigen Albtraum. Und einem Kampf ums nackte Überleben. 

Meine Meinung 

Mit „Albino Devil“ hat der Autor ein Setting erschaffen, in dem ich mich pudelwohl gefühlt habe. Neben verfallenen Häusern, ist der Wald für mich der Ort, an dem das Kopfkino ordentlich in Gange kommt. Denkt mal drüber nach, an welchem Ort ihr nachts ungern wäret :P

Dass André Wegmann auch noch die rumänischen Karpaten auswählte, einfach perfekt.

Den Trip dorthin unternimmt ein Vierergespann.

Marc und seine Freundin Marie, sowie Larissa und Frank.

Von der Charakterkennzeichnung hat mir Larissa am besten gefallen.

Bei ihr habe ich ein paar Gemeinsamkeiten gefunden und ihr Handeln konnte ich am meisten nachempfinden. Leser, die das Buch kennen, werden nun wahrscheinlich mit dem Kopf schütteln, aber ja so ist es! :P

Was brauch ein schauriger Horrorroman noch, außer ein gruseliges Setting?

Na klar, eine Legende!

Hier dachte ich erst, diese könnte für mich ein/der Knackpunkt sein, ABER tatsächlich hat der Autor da eine sehr gute Idee zu Papier gebracht.

Das Schauermärchen gefiel mir und ab da konnte ich das Wandern durch den Wald bei aufziehendem Unwetter noch viel mehr genießen.

Wer sehnsüchtig auf den blutigen Albtraum, welcher im Klappentext versprochen wird, wartet, der wird zur Hälfte des Buches erlöst. Es geht los!

Aber der Weg dahin war für mich keineswegs langweilig. Hier konzentrierte sich Wegmann auf die Figurenzeichnung und Beschreibungen der Umgebung.

Dann beginnt der Kampf um Leben oder Tod.

Wer ist stark genug sich gegen diese Gegner zu behaupten?

Auch der Großteil der letzten Sequenzen gefiel mir super.

Es wird spannend und blutig, genau mein Geschmack.

Lediglich mit dem ganz großen Showdown hatte ich mein Problem, aber da ist es nun schwer euch mehr zu verraten. Das mag absolut Geschmackssache sein.

Macht euch euer eigenes Bild.

Mein Fazit

Kurz gesagt. Packt euren Rucksack, vergesst das Buch nicht und macht euch auf in die rumänischen Karpaten und schaut was euch dort erwartet.

Hoffen dürft ihr auf einiges Blut, welches fließen wird.

Eine gute Prise Sex, welche solche Stories immer aufpeppt und viel Action!

Da mich André Wegmann auch vom Schreibstil total mitnehmen konnte, werde ich nun einen Blick auf weitere Romane werfen.

I’m sorry to report my lovely snake charmer let me down this roll. :( Tossing two dice gave me a six which meant I landed on square #65 and a snake. Boo! I slid back down to square #52 where the prompt says to read a book with a tree or flower on the cover. I chose "Open Season" by C.J. Box which has some dreary looking tree trunks on the cover, and I wasn't all that impressed with the story, either.  Granted it’s the first in a series, but I had some issues with the main characters, and a number of scenes felt like they were written for shock value which didn't work for me. I suspect Box was trying to up the suspense factor or possibly appeal more to male readers. Anyway, I would have preferred to have seen the climatic scene with the culprits play out differently, and I kinda felt Box's portrayal of Joe Pickett's wife veered into sainthood territory by the end. The second book in the series is buried in my TBR pile, but I'm not in any hurry to read it.

Roll #9

65. Snake - go back to 52: (Zap!)

52. Has a tree or flower on the cover: Open Season by C.J. Box 

Progress to Date:

 1. Author is a woman / start: Their Lost Daughters by Joy Ellis

     Roll #1 - Two Dice Roll:  3 + 3 = 6

     Timestamp: 2019-02-24 21:59:09 UTC 

 7. Author's last name begins with the letters A, B, C, or D: The Mysterious Affair

     At Styles by Agatha Christie 

     Roll #2 - Two Dice Roll:  5 + 5 = 10

     Timestamp: 2019-02-26 07:26:51 UTC

17. Genre - horror: The Mummy Case by Elizabeth Peters (skipping horror)

      Roll #3 - One Die Roll:  4

     Timestamp: 2019-03-04 02:36:31 UTC

21. Set in Europe: My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell

      Roll #4 - Two Dice Roll:  6 + 5 = 11

      Timestamp: 2019-03-09 23:41:41 UTC

32. Genre: thriller: The Dry by Jane Harper

      Roll #5 - Two Dice Roll:  4 + 4 = 8

      Timestamp: 2019-03-14 20:42:23 UTC

40. Characters involved in the entertainment industry: Queen of Hearts by Rhys 

      Bowen.

      Roll #6 - Two Dice Roll:  5 + 1 = 6

      Timestamp: 2019-03-19 20:34:27 UTC 

46. A book that has been on your tbr for more than two years: The Devil's Novice

      by Ellis Peters

      Roll #7 - Two Dice Roll:  4 + 5 = 9

      Timestamp: 2019-03-26 22:06:20 UTC

55. Is more than 500 pages long: A Local Habitation by Seanan McGuire (skipping

      500 pg. book)

      Roll #8 - One Die Roll:  4

      Timestamp: 2019-04-03 05:53:32 UTC

59. Was published more than 10 years ago: Friday the Rabbi Slept Late by Harry

      Kemelman

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I've been shamefully slacking on my S&L updates and now have a bunch to post in order to catch up to my final read to finish the game. Moving on from square #55 where I opted to skip the book prompt, I rolled a single die and got a four which took me to square #59. I didn't have a problem finding a book that was written more than ten years ago on my TBR and chose "Friday the Rabbi Slept Late" by Harry Kemelman. The first of a series, it was written in 1964 and is performed by George Guidall, who's one of my favorite narrators. Overall it was just an okay murder mystery improved by Guidall's narration. So while I did appreciate learning more about the rabbi's traditional approach to his vocation and seeing the social workings of his congregation and the Jewish community, the whodunit wasn't very satisfying.  

Progress to Date:

 1. Author is a woman / start: Their Lost Daughters by Joy Ellis

     Roll #1 - Two Dice Roll:  3 + 3 = 6

     Timestamp: 2019-02-24 21:59:09 UTC (working on the screen shot thing) 

 7. Author's last name begins with the letters A, B, C, or D: The Mysterious Affair

     At Styles by Agatha Christie 

     Roll #2 - Two Dice Roll:  5 + 5 = 10

     Timestamp: 2019-02-26 07:26:51 UTC

17. Genre - horror: The Mummy Case by Elizabeth Peters (skipping horror)

       Roll #3

21. Set in Europe: My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell

       Roll #4

32. Genre: thriller: The Dry by Jane Harper

      Roll #5

40. Characters involved in the entertainment industry: Queen of Hearts by Rhys 

      Bowen.

      Roll #6 

46. A book that has been on your tbr for more than two years: The Devil's Novice

      by Ellis Peters

      Roll #7

55. Is more than 500 pages long: A Local Habitation by Seanan McGuire (skipping

      500 pg. book)

      Roll #8

59. Was published more than 10 years ago: Friday the Rabbi Slept Late by Harry

      Kemelman

Just like March, I read 22 books in April with an average score of 3.96. 13 books were YA and 1 was a graphic novel. My most-read genres were contemporary, fantasy, and mystery.

My favorite book was Hamilton: The Revolution - Jeremy McCarter, Lin-Manuel Miranda. I was on a bit of a Hamilton kick this month. My least favorite book was The Lonely Dead - April Henry. It was the only book below 3 stars this month, so it was a really good month overall.

5 Stars

4.5 Stars

4 Stars

3.5 Stars

2.5 Stars

Books by author gender:

• Male: 4
• Female: 18
• Male/Female Mix: 0

Books by format:

• Physical: 3
• Audio: 19

Indigo

by Beverly Jenkins

I'm finding that I'm kind of an outlier in my reaction to this book, not quite as enamored with it as everyone else.  And for that, I'm feeling a bit conflicted.  Because, on the one hand, Indigo was written well, with a wonderful premise and an amazingly created heroine.  Even some of the side characters were brought to life, and I feel like Ms. Bev did a great job showing us the times and reality of slavery during this era in American history.  She doesn't sugar coat anything, and gives depth to how terribly cruel slavery truly was--not that we didn't already know, but it's great that she simply lays it all out there.

Hester's history is a heavy one, and I found her little flashback of the moment in which she and her childhood friend Ella learned the harsh truth of their reality to be quite heartbreaking.  This is a heroine you love to root for, because she's level-headed, resourceful, and has no trouble standing up for herself.  I loved her sarcastic returns to Galen in the beginning while he was still healing and being super surly about his situation.  I rooted for her big time when she faced down the nasty Ezra Shoe and his men with nothing but a rifle and her own gumption.

I wished she'd have given Foster more of a verbal thrashing after the way he treated her throughout the book.  But nonetheless, she wasn't too meek to throw him off her property when he got to be a general jackass.

My only quibble with Hester was that she might have been too created to be too innocent and too perfect, which is quite typical of a lot of romance novel heroines, so I didn't dwell on that for too long.

Meanwhile, in the same turn, I'm not sure that the romance between Hester and Galen really worked all that well for me--specifically the courting phase of the relationship.  The married phase of their romance was a bit more fun, in terms of flirty barbs and witty banter, but otherwise, I felt that the romance itself was rather too cookie cutter for my liking.  And I never really warmed to Galen, having not been able to get past the scene wherein he sneaks into Hester's bedroom at night while she's sleeping and watches her without her knowledge--this kind of behavior is a hundred percent NOT OKAY in my book.  And his advances come on rather too strong, and I'm not sure how I felt about the whole lavish gifts scenario that came across like a typical Cinderella story after we find out how wealthy Galen is and how he can afford pretty much everything in the world.  I'm afraid it made it hard for me to appreciate all of his other, more charming behaviors and attributes in the latter parts of the book.

Truth be told, the story starts out very strong, with the hiding of the Black Daniel, and the anxiousness you felt for Hester as slave catchers entered into the picture, searching her home, and lobbing threats and insults at her.  The talk of a traitor amidst the Conductors in Whittaker was a great way to start off the book, and I found it kept me intrigued, just wanting to know what Galen and Hester would end up finding out.

But after Galen heals up and leaves Hester's care, I feel like the story kind of plateaus from there, becoming more romance... which this book is, first and foremost anyway, so I don't know why I'm complaining.  Probably because, as a romance, it doesn't really stand out much, nor satisfy my own expectations.  I guess I just wished there'd been more about the Underground, and Hester's part in it.  And even the investigation of the traitor kind of gets set aside for a while.  The ending picks up a bit in terms of action and the final reveal to the traitor--which I found rather more complex than I'd predicted, but in a good way.

In the end, I found that I was much more interested in all the little history lessons that Ms. Bev peppers into the story throughout than I was in the outcome of Hester's and Galen's romancing.  The little news snippets about different activities and movements of the abolitionists, as well as prominent figures of the Road were quite educational, being the parts that I enjoyed the most out of this book.  Although, I will admit that the ending info dumps about John Brown and Harper's Ferry felt a bit awkward in terms of narrative.

Overall, this was still a very enjoyable read, and I will definitely be looking into more works by Beverly Jenkins.