Book Review: The Troubleshooters series -- novellas by Suzanne Brockmann

The Troubleshooters series
by Suzanne Brockmann (see hotlinks for each individual story)

Four short stories and a novella from the Troubleshooters series By Suzanne Brockmann.

 

Only download the following Hoopla and Libby audio books if you are a fan of the Troubleshooters series by Suzanne Brockmann. These five stories are novellas and shorts that are hilarious, scary, thoughtful, and poignant. They catch you up with some of our favorite characters, giving you more insight into the lives of Adam, Izzy, Gilman, Jules, Robin, and others beyond what we’ve read in the full-length novels. The narrators, Patrick Lawlor and Melanie Ewbank, are perfect as they portray our characters.

 

Book #12.1 “When Tony Met Adam” 2hrs/10min, story timeline Dec 2007-Feb 2008.

Main characters: Navy SEAL Tony Vlachic, actor Adam Wyndham.

This story starts at the end of book #12, “All Through the Night” (the night before Jules and Robin’s wedding), when Adam has been escorted out of Jules and Robin’s home after the stalker has been captured. If you remember, as he’s walking down the street to the corner, Tony is one of the SEALs guarding the house and recognizes Adam as his favorite actor, runs up to him and writes his phone number on Adam’s palm, then they go their separate ways. “When Tony Met Adam” picks up their story over the course of the next several months. By the end we understand Adam much better, he’s pulled his life together, and he becomes one of our likeable characters.

 

Book #18.1 “Free Fall” 1hr/29min, story timeline early Jan 2010.

Main characters: SEAL Team 16.

This take places after novel #18, “Do or Die,” with our favorite SEAL team doing a High Altitude training jump when Tony’s equipment fails. Izzy to the rescue with an innovative plan which will either work, injure one or both of them, or kill one or both.

 

Book #18.2 “Home Fire Inferno (Burn, Baby, Burn!)” 1hr/29min, story timeline Jan 2010, just a couple of weeks after 18.1 “Free Fall.”

Main characters: Navy SEAL Team 16 including new guy Hubert Bickles (HoBoMoFo), Eden Zanella, Jenn Gillman, Brianna Bickles, Brianna’s 5th grade teacher Carol Redmond, and Adam Wyndham.

SEAL Team 16 is at the airport Mission Ready for an overseas job – meaning they are set to leave at any moment for location unknown for reason unknown for mission-length unknown with no communication with anyone outside of the team. Then Jenn goes into labor a month early while stranded in the California desert, unable to contact anyone. Jenkins, recovering from a knee injury in the previous story, fills-in for HoBoMoFo for his daughter’s Career Day at school and sets his eye on the teacher.

 

Book #18.3 “Ready to Roll” 6hr/8min, story timeline four weeks after #18.2 (late Feb 2010).

Main Characters: SEALS Izzy, Gillman, Jenkins, and Tony, Eden and her brother Ben, with cameos by Kelly, Sam, Alyssa, and Robin, and we meet Lt. ‘Grunge’ Green (who gets his own story in novel #19 “Some Kind of Hero”).

 

Three stories going on with this one. Eden’s 16-year-old brother Ben is dealing with a homophobic classmate, but things may not be as they appear. Izzy is an instructor, along with Lt Grunge, at BUD/S SEALs training during Hell Week where we meet the most interesting crew – Boat Squad John. And Dan and Jenn’s new baby cries constantly, what in the world is wrong?

 

19.1 “Beginnings and Ends” 1hr/12m, story timeline June 2012. This takes place five years after Jules and Robin’s 2007 wedding in book #12 (and two years after the final novel, #19, “Some Kind of Hero”).

Main characters: FBI Agent Jules Cassidy, actor Robin Chadwick Cassidy.

Robin has been starring in an award-winning TV series but is ready to leave the show. What will the future bring? This story pretty well ends the series and it’s a perfect ending – unless Brockmann writes further in-between shorts.

 

( official Troubleshooters page on the official Suzanne Brockmann web site )

 

Recommended by Charlotte M.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: An Amy Lane Christmas Bundle by Amy Lane

An Amy Lane Christmas Bundle

by Amy Lane (Hoopla eBook)

 

Five short and sweet gay holiday romance novellas by Amy Lane. I had encountered all of these short stories previously as ebooks (and they all are still available individually in that format from your bookstore) and was very pleased to learn they had been collected into this anthology (which is also available from bookstores in a hardcopy format).

 

“If I Must” follows two roommates. Ian is a genius mathematician who gets so caught up in his work that he essentially needs a caretaker to ensure he eats. Joel is an organized computer programmer who tries his best to keep Ian on track. Then Joel heads home for a short holiday visit with his family and everything falls apart for Ian.

 

“Christmas with Danny Fit” involves an unmarried accountant who cares for, and lives with, his widowed mother – who doesn’t appreciate what all he does for her. He decides it’s past time for him to make a change so he begins to diet and buys exercise videos by his favorite exercise guru Danny Fit, and makes plans to purchase a home and move in. Of course he meets a guy along the way. Let the holiday romance begin.

 

“Puppy, Car, and Snow” Ryan works as a soul-less corporate lawyer, but for the past three years his personal life has been everything he could ask for after he met Scott. They are traveling to Ryan’s parent’s cabin for Christmas with his family, but Ryan’s disapproving mother is sucking the joy out of the holidays, and unfortunately they get snowed-in. Will their relationship survive?

 

“Turkey in the Snow” Hank is a staid banker whose sister has dumped her 4-year-old daughter on him and left. He’s trying his best to provide what a little girl needs but is out of his element. Flamboyant Justin is the childcare worker at Hank’s gym and is able to assist with the care of a little girl anticipating the holidays. And of course they begin to notice each other.

 

And my favorite, “Going Up” (the entire reason I purchased this anthology): Zach lives in the penthouse apartment of his father’s building. One day the express elevator breaks so Zach walks down a couple of flights to catch the regular elevator and encounters a man in a costume. Sean is working as a substitute history teacher and routinely dresses up as a historical character to keep his students’ attention. Zach now decides he likes riding the regular elevator and ensures he rides at the same time to “accidentally” run into Sean each morning. Who among us has not done something similar? It was fun watching this one unfold.

 

Five short and sweet holiday romance stories, each one can be read in an afternoon. .

 

( official Amy Lane web site )

 

Recommended by Charlotte M.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: The Deep by Rivers Solomon

The Deep

by Rivers Solomon (Solomon)

 

This fantasy novella takes the horror and trauma of the transatlantic slave trade, and comes out the other side with human-descended, water-breathing life. These babies, initially cared for by other sea life, have grown and now have a society of their own in the depths of the ocean. Their lives are full of joy and freedom. However, the tragedies of their mothers’ lives need to be remembered, and there is one historian for the group who holds on to that burden. As she gets older, Yetu comes to realize that her responsibility is going to be the death of her. She needs to find a way to share the heavy burdens with the other wajinru.

 

With themes similar to Toni Morrison’s Beloved and Bessel van der Kolk’s The Body Keeps the Score, this profound work unmasks the heart and soul in traumatized beings who perpetuate violence. Many of the characters do not realize they need to heal themselves, so we see generational trauma’s effects on micro and macro level relationships. The ocean setting just adds to the beauty and despair of these lives.

[ official The Deep page on the official Rivers Solomon web site ]

 

Recommended by Naomi S.
Eiseley and Williams Branch Libraries

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Reviews: The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells

The Murderbot Diaries series
by Martha Wells

The four novellas in The Murderbot Diaries series (All Systems Red, Artificial Condition, Rogue Protocol, Exit Strategy) were among my favorite reads in 2019. “Murderbot” is a self-applied nickname for an artificial lifeform — a SecUnit (security unit) made of a combination of both hardware and human tissue. In this series, SecUnit has become fully self-aware, and has hacked and broken the combination of hardware and software that keeps it enslaved as a tool to humans. The problem is, though it feels a sense of responsibility to the humans that is contracted to work for, all it really wants to do is be left alone to watch the futuristic equivalent of high-tech soap operas, and to to not have to interact with humans if at all possible. But, there’s a mystery in its background, in which it may have killed a whole lot of people (hence “Murderbot”) and then had its memory wiped.

Over the course of these four very short novels (a fifth full-length novel is coming in 2020), SecUnit saves a bunch of lives, is granted its autonomous freedom, chooses to run away, investigates its own mysterious past, and comes back to save the lives of the first human “friends” it has ever made. All while telling its adventures in the most self-deprecating, sarcastic way possible. This is serious science fiction, with one of the most appealing, and intriguing, narrative heroes I’ve ever had the pleasure to read. Martha Wells brings an intense humanity to SecUnit as a protagonist, but also creates an incredibly believable futuristic world. The pacing is marvelous — jumping from monotonous to pulse-pounding in an instant. I can’t wait to read more in this series!

[ official Murderbot Diaries page on the official Martha Wells web site ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

Have you read this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Review: Elevation by Stephen King

Elevation
by Stephen King [downloadable audio]

This was a fun new book by Stephen King. I pre-ordered it on Audible, and I was lucky enough to have just finished my last audiobook when this became available! It was read by King, himself. That’s always fun, having the author read his or her own work, because they know exactly how the story should sound. I enjoy listening to King, because he’s not a trained voice actor, and his voice is actually not one of those you’d really CRAVE to listen to…. but he was better than respectable, doing a very nice job of keeping the various characters’ voices straight. I was impressed!

The story itself was not what some would consider “typical” Stephen King stuff… that is, it wasn’t a horror or thriller novel, in the traditional sense. However, what was happening to the main character, Scott Carey, was, in my opinion, spooky. It was a good read, and I really enjoyed it!

I think the reason I’m not giving it a full 5 stars is because it was a little on the short side. I’ve gotten so used to reading epic novels by King, that when something of his doesn’t take me more than a couple of days, I almost feel cheated. (That is, of course, unless it’s a novella or short story, and I know that going into it…. then I’m ready for a ‘quickie’ from him. But in this case, I think I was hoping for more….) Still, I’d definitely recommend it!

[ official Elevation page on the official Stephen King web site ]

Recommended by Tracy T.
Bennett Martin Public Library

Have you read this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewers recommendations!

The Deal of a Lifetime by Fredrik Backman

The Deal of a Lifetime
by Fredrik Backman

Another gem of a novella by the internationally popular Swedish author, this fantasy about life and death poignantly encapsulates the extent of love, no matter how much time and how many regrets have been impediments along the way.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Tuesday With Morrie, by Mitch Albom, And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer and A Man Called Ove, by Fredrik Backman, and the film Meet Joe Black (not in the libraries).]

[ official The Deal of a Lifetime page on the U.S. publisher’s official Fredrik Backman web site ]

Recommended by Becky W.C.
Walt Branch Library

Have you read this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewers recommendations!

A Match Made in Texas: A Novella Collection

A Match Made in Texas: A Novella Collection
by Karen Wilemeyer (and others) [Wilemeyer]

This is a collection of four novellas, each about 100 pages long. They were lighthearted and humorous, great for a quick read over your lunch break! -- recommended by Marie P. - Bennett Martin Public Library

[ publisher's official A Match Made in Texas web page ]

Have you read this? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewers recommendations!

Eater-of-Bone

Eater-of-Bone
by Robert Reed

This is a terrific collection of four novellas from Lincoln's own Hugo-award-winning science fiction author. Three of the four stories are reprints, including "A Billion Eves", the story for which Reed won the 2007 Hugo Award for Best Novella. The fourth story is an original one which provides the title for this hardback volume – "Eater-of-Bone". This story is tied in to Reed's long-running "Great Ship" universe of interconnected tales, involving far-future humans who have become nearly immortal, and their experiences as they travel the universe. The story "Eater-of-Bone" is one of the best, and strangest, in that sequence of stories, and I highly recommend it. In addition, all four stories in this collection are among Reed's best work in the past 5 or 6 years. For an author who primarily writes and publishes short fiction (not novels), this is a marvelous introduction to Reed's body of work – you can also sample more of his short stories in the two collections The Dragons of Springplace and The Cuckoo's Boys. -- recommended by Scott C. - Bennett Martin Public Library [If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Marrow or The Well of Stars, Reed's two novels set in his Greatship universe.]

[ Nebraska Author Robert Reed booklist here on BookGuide ] | [ official Eater-of-Bone page on the official Robert Reed web site – where you'll find links to many of his stories free online! ]

Have you read this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewers recommendations!