Mini Reviews: Unlocked, Want, Hunted, and Divine Intervention

Happy Thursday everyone!  Today, I'll be sharing some mini reviews of some of my recent reads - Unlocked by Margo Kelly, Want by Cindy Pon, Hunted by Meagan Spooner, and Divine Intervention (The Dining and Social Club for Time Travellers #1) by Elyse Kishimoto.  Of these four, Unlocked and Want are my two favorites - both come highly recommend from me.  Here we go:

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I was lucky enough to win this from the author from Spring 2017 YASH!

Ever since Hannah went to the hypnotist's show at the fair with her friends, she's been losing her grip on reality and she is terrified. She doesn't know what's real anymore. Has she somehow inherited her father's schizophrenia, or did that hypnotist really do something to her that she can't shake. I haven't read many books featuring hypnosis, but this one is definitely worth trying. It absolutely sucked me in and hooked me right from the beginning. It's very a very intense thriller. The author really makes you question Hannah's world - she's definitely what you would call an unreliable narrator. Plug, aka Eugene, is also very interesting and he's interested in helping Hannah figure out what's going on whether it's the occult or someone gaslighting her. If you like a twisty, turning mystery that has you questioning everything, Unlocked by Margo Kelly is right for you. I will definitely be looking into this author's other work.


I read this novel from June 11 - 15, 2017 and my review is also on Goodreads.

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Want by Cindy Pon is a diverse #OwnVoices YA sci-fi novel with an awesome cast and visually vivid world building for a near-future Taipei which is heavily polluted, economically and socially divided, and a totally corrupt dystopia. I've read a lot of YA dystopia and sometimes the genre can wear a bit thin, but Want has easily been my favorite dystopia of 2017. It has just about everything you could want in a story from heists, murder, explosions, kidnapping, hacking, rock climbing, gadgets and technology, tons of action, and just a dash of romance. I could totally see this tale as a movie, and I definitely need to see more of these characters!


I listened to this audiobook from June 13 - 18, 2017 and my review is also on Goodreads.

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Hunted by Meagan Spooner is a good, but slow YA retelling of Beauty and the Beast. I liked our new Beauty, but unfortunately, it's missing that spark that kept me from being fully engrossed in this audiobook. The writing style is beautiful, but very little happens for the first thirty percent or so, and after that things still progress fairly slowly - I can understand coming to slowly see your captor differently but this just begins to drag a little too much for me. I have to admit, I listened to it at 2x speed since the narrators spoke too slowly for my tastes. I'd still prefer the Disney cartoon or the new live action movie with Emma Watson and Dan Stevens.


I listened to this audiobook from June 21 - 22, 2017 and my review is also on Goodreads.

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A dining and social club for time travelers whose members start to go missing? As a fan of time travel, this short novel sounded exactly like something I'd love. Unfortunately, though, this turned out to be a read where I liked the central concept more than I liked the final product. It's been billed as a YA novel, but it reads much more like an MG book - I'm not sure if I missed Louisa's age, but she sounds like she must be somewhere in the 10-12 year old age range. As for the rest of the cast of time travelers, I had a really difficult time keeping them all straight in my mind - maybe that's because of the weird names, but it's more likely that everyone is rather flat and two dimensional. Plus, I had a hard time connecting to anyone at all. Overall, the first 40 or 50 pages (out of 200), when things are getting set up, are the most interesting, but the novel suffers from far too little world building and character development to truly hold my attention. You have to admit, though, it has an awesome cover.


I read this book from July 12 - 13, 2017 and my review is also on Goodreads.


Have you had the opportunity to read any of these books yet?  If so, what did you think of them?  Thanks for making it this far, and perhaps commenting down below.