Books I Liked

I have done a little bit of reading over the holidays and I thought it would be a good idea to share a few thoughts on some of the books I liked. There is nothing fancy about this post. I just chose the five most recent books that I have read. To make things a little more helpful, I have included the link of the book in the title and the Twitter handles of four of the five authors.

The Call of the Mountain by Sam Neumann (@NeumSamN)

The book is about a man who grows tired of a fast-paced, corporate lifestyle and abandons everything he knows on a whim to pursue a childhood dream of going to Colorado. While there, he gets mixed up with an odd crowd that leads him down a very dark path.

I liked this book and I believe that this is a book that will have you questioning what kind of person the main character truly is. For me, some words that came to mind while reading were empty, selfish and lost. That is not to say that I think the main character is a bad person. I suppose this is a book that tries to highlight the fact that change and taking risks can be good but the outcome may not be rosy. It also shows that one can trade stability and monotony for the chance to pursue mental peace and happiness, but it will never truly be found if that person has no idea what they really hope to achieve from life.


Gone by Stacy Claflin (@growwithstacy)

This book is about the occurrence and aftermath of a teenage girl who gets kidnapped by a man, posing as a teenage boy, she met online. The story is told from many different perspectives but the main focus is on Macy, the teenage girl who gets kidnapped. I don't like to write reviews that spoil storylines so I will leave it at the fact that this is a very chilling book to read. It's fast-paced and there are moments were I felt uncomfortable reading it. It was a good level of discomfort and I did appreciate the sub-plots that gave the story a change of pace. I like books where the human element (good and bad) are on prominent display and this book has no shortage of that.

If I Break by Portia Moore (@Sheluvspink2013)

There are two major tales with the book involving mostly two characters. The first tale is a sexy, mysterious love story while the second is a sad story about a crumbling marriage mired in secrets. As a reader, I had no idea what was going on until practically the end of the book. However, everything made sense when I read the little extended preview of the next book in the series included at the end of the book.

The Favor by Marco A. Rodriguez

I don't expect to like the main character in the books I read. To be honest, I'm perfectly content with reading a book and the main character is far from perfect. That is what you get with this book, but you also get so much more. To sum it up neatly without spoiling anything, you get a story about a woman who uses a very traumatic event from her past to bring closure and peace to her present life in the span of a roughly 24-hour period. I will admit that the end of the book made me cry.

The Rosary by Paul B. Kohler (@PaulBKohler)

Please note that this is book 4 in this particular series (The Borrowed Souls series). I have not read the other books in this series. That being said, this is a fairly short read and I was able to gather the basic plot without feeling totally lost. The story is about soul collector (think about it as like a grim reaper) who is tasked to follow around a man until he dies to collect his soul. As our soul collector continues to trail his mark, he has second-thoughts about fulfilling his duty. I thought it was a pretty good book. It wasn't full of twists and explosive moments, but not every book needs that.