Tunnel of Bones by Victoria Schwab

I should begin by mentioning that Victoria Schwab (V. E. Schwab) is one of my favourite authors. She is just an amazing author and human and I adore her. 

Tunnel of Bones is the second book in her paranormal middle grade series. The first book is City of Ghosts. You can read my review of that one here. 

The series follows Cassidy Blake and her ghost best friend as they accompany Cassidy's parents who are filming a television show about the world's most haunted cities. This book takes place in Paris, in the catacombs. Cassidy's parents might be chasing ghosts, but it's Cassidy who actually gets to see them and interact with them. 

I'm not the target audience for middle grade novels. That being said, I truly enjoyed this! It was a quick read, but it was fun and enjoyable. You never quite know how things will turn out, and it's always an exciting journey to get there. 

Victoria has a way of writing her characters that gives them such an old soul, more raw quality to them that just sticks with you. Cassidy Blake is no exception. I didn't have any trouble connecting with the main character, even though I am much older. 

There was more back story in this one, in some ways. Perhaps it was building more into the characters and the world in preparation for more novels. Still a fast paced, spooky read. 

I also appreciate the creepy, spooky aspects of this book. Even though it's for a younger audience, it's not too cute and watered down. The paranormal element is still here and still on the scary side. I love that. 

At this point I'm not sure there's a book by this author that I'm not going to love and I can't wait till the next one comes out! 

Recommendation: For the readers who love paranormal novels, creepy reads, ghosts, and great writing.

Slayer by Kiersten White

This book just came out recently and I am so happy its out in the world! I had requested this book on Netgalley and I was quite happy that I was able to read it last year!! I used to watch Buffy on TV as a teen, and since then I've renewed my interest in it.

This book is about The Watchers, the ones who are left, and the last Slayer to exist after Buffy. Basically things are in shambles due to what Buffy did (which since I haven't watched the whole show I have no real frame of reference for) and it follows the lives of Nina and her twin sister Artemis who grew up at the Watchers Academy. There are only a small number of Watchers left, and they are focused on being ready when needed for any future Slayers.

Nina gets quite a shock when she discovers she's the last Slayer. Ever.

There's demons, monsters, all the baddies from this world you could think of. There's betrayal, secrets, and anger. It's one heck of a journey.

I read this all at once and I liked it. There were moments where I was wondering why bits were necessary, but I think perhaps there's a larger story at work here and as the series goes, more will be known.

Slayer was well written. I was glued to the page and had to finish it in one sitting! It's just one of those engrossing reads that pulls you out of your everyday life and throws you into an adventure to the point where you forget your troubles. 

I'm happy to have read gotten the opportunity to read this before it was released. It wasn't what I was expecting but it was quite good!

Since I've only just begun to re-watch all of Buffy, I am looking forward to needing to re-read this novel again once I'm finished, and to follow along with the series!

Recommendation: For the lovers of Buffy and vampire/creature type stories. For the lovers of books about finding out who you are and those who just love one heck of an adventure

Midnight, Texas series by Charlaine Harris

Back in 2017 I reviewed the first book in this series called Midnight Crossroad (you can find that review here). Recently, my mom passed me the trilogy, and I immediately got to reading the second and third book in the series.

This series is such a different one from your typical vampires, beasties, and things that go bump in the night type of urban fantasy. There are types of characters I've never come across before, and the people in the book are real and flawed in such a way you feel like you know them, and you can totally feel for their separate struggles.

It's about this very small town of people who just want some peace and quiet without the rest of the world butting in. There's a telephone medium, a local witch, a vampire of sorts, and a couple of other equally interesting locals who are all just working to save their town and keep things the way they are.

Honestly, I don't think I'm doing things justice, but I really don't want to spoil anything for you. There's murder, danger, backstabbing, lies, and secrets all in this mysterious little town. Along with a healthy portion of the paranormal.

If you've read anything else by Charlaine Harris, or you like the show, please read these! I adored them! I can guarantee the books are different from the show, but seriously great!

Recommendations: If you love paranormal, witchy, vampire reads in the present day then you'll love these!

Prudence by Gail Carriger

Hopefully you'll already be acquainted with Gail Carriger's other series The Parasol Protectorate series, but if you haven't been yet, that's okay though you should rectify that as soon as possible. I'll be posting my thoughts on that series very soon as I just realized I had not yet talked about it on here!

That series and this one are both set back in the day when women still wore bustles, sent out cards before going visiting, and when there were rules to appearing in society. This one also features a few supernatural creatures of the werewolf and vampire variety.

This book is about a young woman named Prudence. She is given a dirigible and is sent off to India in pursuit of a new, delicious kind of tea. She assembles a crew and off they go. She stumbles onto some very interesting events and ends up involving herself in dire situations to sort it all out.

The thing about this is Prudence is the daughter of the main character in The Parasol Protectorate series, but it's not fully required of you to read the other series first (thought I recommend that you do).

The author's writing was wonderful, as usual. I found myself laughing out loud at times, enjoying myself immensely. It's quite the steampunk, supernatural, polite society read.

Beyond that, though, I had some problems. First, there are reoccurring characters from the other series. However, they felt weird to me in this series. Like I couldn't really wrap my head around the fact that I was reading about the same characters at some points.

There was also so veiled allusion to happenings from the previous series that kind of passed over my head, like I should know to what she was referring, but I wasn't sure that I did.

Overall, this book was good, but it wasn't the wonderful, amazing thing for me that the first series was. For what it was, it was a great story. I almost wish the author created a totally new person in the same world without bringing back in the other characters and then wrote this story, because I think I could have fallen in love with it then.

Recommendation: If you've read the other series, still read this. You might love it more than I did. If you love steampunk supernatural stories with tea drinking society women in fancy dress, you'll enjoy this.