We all know what it’s like to grab a book, start reading, and then think, “Oh boy, I’m not cooking dinner or sleeping tonight, because book.”
Wreathed is a sparky, well-written romance full of zingers and Chardonnay, as Gwendolyn (“My name is Wendy!”) Jarrett navigates a world peopled by a neurotic mother with an arrest record as long as her arm, a dead uncle, a rather dishy Adam Lewis who just happens to be putting himself on the wrong end of a legal case, and a former classmate who keeps jumping out of the bushes–sometimes literally.
Brace yourself for the unexpected plot-twists. Wait, unexpected plot-twists? Aren’t plot-twists, by definition, unexpected? Well, of course they are, but in most novels the reader can see them coming from a mile away, and in Wreathed I was actually surprised, in a good way! I won’t go into details because I don’t want to give any spoilers, but I did not see that coming. (You want to know what I didn’t see coming, trust me.)
I giggled my way through parts of this book, was reminded of my childhood desire for a house on The Shore, and craved Wawa. Furthermore, while I do not normally like to compare authors to other authors (it feels unnecessarily derivative and rude to people who have slaved to create their own “voice” and creations), I have to say that if you like Janet Evanovich, you’re going to like Curtis Edwards.
You need this book in your life, and can get it for your Kindle here. Want a quick preview? Take a look at the back blurb, below:
In a society where oppression and conformity rule the masses and the slightest unusual behavior could be seen as treasonous, Wynter Reeves would do just about anything to stay unnoticed. Yet when she succumbs to a rare and debilitating illness, she unwillingly attracts the attention of the State—in particular, the feared research facility known as the DSD.
Vanessa Florence Grandeville, a Beverly Hills socialite and a well known spoiled brat, celebrated her twenty-first birthday in Honolulu with her rich friends. By complete coincidence, in a course of just one day, she kept bumping into Michael, a kind fisherman from a neighboring island. She despised and humiliated him. He fell in love at first sight.
Demien is a painstakingly researched novel with an interesting premise, reminiscent conceptually of Arthur C. Clarke’s Childhood’s End. Clarke’s Overlords, however, are nothing like Morvant’s creatures.
Twelve-year-old Helen Robley discovers she is a “Transartist” when the drawings she loves to make become reality. Using her magic, she travels to the East Pole, home of the creatures that populate all children’s imaginations ˗˗ creatures like the Sand Man, Cupids, and Toothfairies, who are made real in unexpected but wonderful ways.
I have over 400 science fiction titles behind me on my shelves, and while I love a good ray-gun and rocket ship tale, I’ve also found that as I became a more sophisticated reader I was more interested in why characters were firing their ray-guns, or what drove them to propel themselves across worlds and into space.