Nie miałam wcześniej okazji przeczytać nic co wyszło spod pióra Ule Hansen. W rzeczywistości to pseudonim niemiecko-amerykańskiego duetu Astrid Ule i Erica T.Hansena, którzy do tej pory zajmowali się pisaniem scenariuszy i literatury faktu. "Kokony" to ich pierwsza powieść fabularna - połączenie kryminału i thrillera. A sięgnęłam po nią, bo zaintrygował mnie opis z tyłu książki...jak i okładka oraz tytuł.
Plac Poczdamski to jedna z najdroższych działek w Berlinie, mieście kojarzącym się nie tylko z historią, ale i swobodą obyczajową i kulturalną, eleganckimi dzielnicami oraz obszarami czekającymi na rewitalizację. To na wspomnianym placu stoi atrapa wielopiętrowego budynku, na którym pojawiają się wielkoformatowe reklamy.
Pewnego dnia 10-latek znudzony wyjazdem do Berlina wymyka się rodzicom z pobliskiego hotelu i wiedziony ciekawością zagląda na tyły niby budynku. Na rusztowaniach odkrywa zawieszone trzy srebrne kokony, przypominające mumie. Przybyła na miejsce policja potwierdza, że to są trzy ciała. Okazuje się, że po mieście grasuje seryjny zabójca, który swoje ofiary pozbawia życia w drastyczny i wyrafinowany sposób. Śledztwo prowadzi Krajowy Urząd Kryminalny z dobrą profilerką Emmą Carow na czele. Zanim doprowadzą sprawę do końca, w różnych częściach Berlina natrafią na kolejne kokony. Wszystko zgodnie z pewnym schematem.
Emma jak nikt inny potrafi wejść w umysł człowieka i wyciągnąć z niego wszystkie informacje. Im bardziej zagłębia się w śledztwo, tym więcej powraca demonów z przeszłości. Sama była ofiarą brutalnego gwałtu sprzed dziesięciu lat i choć tyle czasu minęło nadal jest w szponach własnego strachu...co przeszkadza jej w normalnych relacjach między ludzkich.
Moim zdaniem jest to dosyć ciekawa i ciężko się od niej oderwać. Akcja rozgrywa się dosyć powoli, więc mamy okazję poznać bardzo dokładnie pracę policjantów. Napisana jest prostym i lekkim językiem. Jest tu dosyć sporo szczegółowym opisów, co w pewien sposób dało mi pewne rzeczy sobie wyobrazić.
Ogólnie polecam!!!

Everything Changes by Melanie Hansen

Cover Created by : Natasha Snow

Release Date: September 14, 2020

Available to Pre-Order at Amazon

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A childhood in foster care taught Carey Everett to hold tight to what he has. Enlisting in the Marines gave him purpose, but a life-threatening injury ended his career—and took his leg. Now fully recovered, Carey’s happier than he’s ever been. He has a fulfilling job, a chosen family and, best of all, a cherished friendship with Jase DeSantis, the platoon medic who saved his life.

Jase knows how to take care of the people he loves. As the oldest of seven, and then a Navy corpsman, it’s what he was born to do. Still, he’s haunted by his actions overseas. Playing music with his band keeps the demons at bay, but it’s a battle he’s starting to lose.

After a week of sun and fun in San Diego, Jase and Carey’s connection takes an unexpected turn. With change comes a new set of challenges. For Jase, it means letting someone else into his deepest pain. For Carey, it’s realizing love doesn’t always equal loss. In order to make their relationship work, they’ll each have to come to terms with their pasts…

…or risk walking away from each other for good.

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For more reviews, check out my blog: Craft-Cycle

Another fantastic adventure in Hereville. I really enjoy this series, especially the blending of reality and fantasy as well as the folklore elements.

As these books have progressed, it has been interesting to see Mirka's relationships with her various family members, especially her siblings, and her stepmother always filling an important role within the story. Watching Mirka learn and mature and grow has been such a wild adventure in the best of ways.

This book was perfectly beautiful with a lovely ending that really tied the whole story together. As with the other books, the illustrations were amazing. I really love these strange adventures filled with magic, trickery, suspense, and battles of wits.

This review can also be found at Carole's Random Life in Books.

I didn't love this one like I had hoped I would. To be fair, I am not the target audience for this book. I have never seen the musical or heard any of its songs so I was pretty clueless going in. I can't tell you how this book compares to the musical but this story does stand on its own. Maybe a younger audience will enjoy this one more than I did but I spent a large part of the book wanted to pull these kids to the side and give them a mom talk. It was a pretty easy read and I am glad I gave it a try.

It all starts with a letter. Evan doesn't have really any friends and has a hard time getting through each day. As a part of therapy, he writes letters to himself to put things in a positive outlook. Connor picks up the letter and takes it from Evan. He dies with that letter in his pocket and suddenly everyone thinks that Connor and Evan were great friends and everything grows from there.

One of my biggest pet peeves is lying of any kind. Unfortunately, this book is packed with lies. Instead of letting Connor's parents know the truth behind the letter he lets them think that he was really friends with Connor. He then proceeds to expand on that lie and becomes a big part of Connor's family's life. He even starts dating Connor's sister who he has had a crush on for a very long time. Almost everything that Evan does in this book is a lie or is tied to a lie and I have to tell you that I had some issues with it. I just felt like Connor's family had enough to deal with without being manipulated by Evan.

There were some things that I did like in this book. I liked that the story is told from two different points of view. I expected Evan's point of view but the second one was a bit of a surprise. The point of view that I didn't expect was really my favorite part of the book. I thought that those sections of the book were very well done.

I listened to this book and I thought that the narrators did a good job with it. The female narrator listed did a couple of song segments worked into the story and the males handled the two points of view. I thought that they both did a great job representing their character. Their voices were very pleasant to listen to for long periods of time. I think that I liked the story a bit more because I decided to listen to the audiobook.

I think that a lot of readers are going to like this book a lot more than I did. The book does touch on a lot of important issues but I couldn't get past all of the deceptions.

I received a digital review copy of this book from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers via NetGalley and borrowed a copy of the audiobook from my local library via Overdrive.

Initial Thoughts
This was probably a 2.5 star read for me. To be fair, I am really not the target audience for this book but I thought I would take a chance on it. I have never really seen anything about the show or soundtrack but I hoped that the book would stand on its own. It fell a bit flat for me. This was always a book that I found easy to set aside and I really couldn't connect with any of the characters. Evan is lying to pretty much everyone for most of the book which kind of made me cringe. I listened to the audio and thought that they did a great job with their performance.