Review: Cranked (The Rose Garden Arena Incident Book 6) by Michael Hiebert

Cranked covers the Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday leading up to Dakota Shane's Saturday evening concert at Portland's Rose Garden Arena.

I admit I've been loving this series. I've been taking the information provided and piecing it together, and have made my guesses as to several of the mysteries weaving their way through this series. (No spoilers ahead, just asking some questions.)

Who are the four women who die? One of them is already known, a second is pretty obvious after reading this installment, and the other two I'm just speculating.

Who is the shooter? This is the one that I'm taking the wildest guess on. It's not exactly an obvious person, yet I'm going to go out on a limb and say the person I'm thinking of also plays another role -- also unrevealed at this point -- and is central to all of the mysteries surrounding Dakota Shane.

Will Reggie survive and reunite with his friend Marshall and his aunt and uncle? This one is tough. Readers know that Reggie is between the proverbial rock and hard place. If there's one character in this book that I think deserves a miracle, its Reggie.

I read a lot of mysteries, and I enjoy playing armchair detective. Michael Hiebert is an author who keeps me guessing. I don't have everything figured out yet, and I'm 99.999% sure that I could be wrong about everything I think is right.

Highly recommended!

Release date: March 26, 2017

Rating: 5 Stars

I received an advance copy from the author in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Some Small Magic by Billy Coffey

Mattingly, Virginia, can be a very dark place yet it is also a place where the light is given a chance to shine. In Billy Coffey's latest Mattingly novel, "Some Small Magic," the light comes from two of the town's misfits: Abel Shifflett, a middle school student whose small stature and brittle bones makes him a target for the school bully, and Dumb Willie, the 22-year-old man whose parents are abusive, cold, and indifferent to him and who may or may not be responsible for why Willie is the man he is today.

Synopsis: She whispers, “I’m supposed to take you home.”

“Not yet,” Abel says. “Please, just not yet.”

All Abel wants is a little bit of magic in his life. Enough money so his mom doesn’t cry at night. Healing for his broken body. And maybe a few answers about his past.

When Abel discovers letters to him from the dad he believed dead, he wonders if magic has come to the hills of Mattingly, Virginia, after all. But not everything is as it seems.

With a lot of questions and a little bit of hope, Abel decides to run away to find the truth. But danger follows him from the moment he jumps his first boxcar, forcing Abel to rely upon his simpleminded friend Willie—a man wanted for murder who knows more about truth than most—and a beautiful young woman who was already on the train. From Appalachia to the Tennessee wilds and through the Carolina mountains, the name of a single small town beckons: Fairhope. That is where Abel believes his magic lays. But will it be the sort that will bring a broken boy healing? And is that the magic that will one day lead him home?

Life in Mattingly is raw and exposed even when its citizens try to keep things hidden. Yet it’s when the flaws – the ugliness . . . the infection, so to speak – is revealed that healing begins for all involved. Coffey’s prose is painstakingly slow at times as he delves into his characters’ lives and discovers nuances that are hidden in depths far below the surface. At the same time, however, mining those depths to reveal secrets also allows for the beauty – the magic – to be revealed as well.

I don’t know that I’d want to live in Mattingly, but I appreciate the opportunity to visit every chance I get. Highly recommended!

Rating: 5 Stars

I received a copy from Thomas Nelson through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Goodbye Days by Jeff Zentner

Authors must hate it when readers compare their current book to the one(s) that came before. It's got to be, at worst, like comparing one child to another or, at best, choosing between three or four favorite flavors of ice cream. You recognize the differences -- the strengths -- each one has and love each of them because of those differences.

Last year, I had the opportunity to read Jeff Zentner's first novel, The Serpent King, and said in my comments (posted to NetGalley and Goodreads) that, "Zentner's novel is a mix all the things that life brings: friendship, love, dreams, tears, the ordinary, and much more . . . all wrapped up in a bundle of hope. I cannot wait to see what Jeff Zentner writes next." Having now read his next book, I am definitely not disappointed.

Synopsis: Carver Briggs never thought a simple text would cause a fatal crash, killing his three best friends, Mars, Eli, and Blake. But now Carver can’t stop blaming himself for the accident and even worse, a powerful judge is pressuring the district attorney to open up a criminal investigation.

Luckily, Carver has some unexpected allies: Eli’s girlfriend, the only person to stand by him at school; Dr. Mendez, his new therapist; and Blake’s grandmother, who asks Carver to spend a “goodbye day” together to share their memories and say a proper farewell.

Soon the other families are asking for their own goodbye day with Carver—but he’s unsure of their motives. Will they all be able to make peace with their losses, or will these Goodbye Days bring Carver one step closer to a complete breakdown or—even worse—prison?

Jeff Zentner does not write books that are necessarily easy to read. He asks questions that don't have pat answers, if there are answers at all. He writes characters that leap off the page and into our heads and hearts, characters who somehow are all the more real because we each know people who share similar traits. Because of this, it is easy to find yourself laughing along with the antics of Carver, Mars, Eli, and Blake one minute and crying over how unfair it is that three teens died with only memories left behind for friends and family.

I have no idea what Mr. Zentner has planned next for readers, but I plan to be there -- ready to read -- when it's published. Highly recommended!

Rating: 5 Stars

I received a copy of this book from Crown Books for Young Readers through NetGalley in exchange for honest review.