Ember & Ashes by T. M. Goeglein

Series: Cold Fury (bk. 3)

Genera: Action-Adventure Thriller/Sci-fi

Subjects: mafia/mob, mystery, missing persons, abilities

Setting: Chicago, Illinois

POV/Tense: 1^st person POV, past tense: Sara Jane Rispoli

Age/Grade Level: Teen 12+

Length: 321 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover

List Price: $17.99

Publisher: Penguin: Putnam

Summary/ product description: “Sara Jane Rispoli is on the wrong side of the Russian mob, but closer to finding her family than ever. And she's willing to do whatever it takes to finally end this terrible journey even if the price is her own life.

The very cold fury that has seen her through the worst of her troubles is now killing her; she knows the cure, but she can't sacrifice the deadly electricity until she's rescued her family. But when she finally does rescue them, it's not the happy reunion she pictured. And the torment doesn't stop there, not even when she finally discovers Ultimate Power. Only destroying the Outfit completely can end this terrible nightmare.

Old enemies return to seek vengeance, double-crosses abound, and even more mysteries are uncovered as we rocket toward an end no one saw coming.”

My Review:  Flicker and Burn is the finale to the Cold Fury trilogy. This series is action packed and show cases the city I am closet to: Chicago. This series is unlike any I’ve ever read. It’s a crime thriller, but has a paranormal/sci-fi element.

Sara Jane has an ability called cold fury. She can use it see a person’s deepest fear and make them see it too when she looks in their eye. She can use it to make them do what she tells them (compulsion). She also has electricity in her body because of some enzyme and the gold in her eyes. She can shock people with it, but it also hurts her. The author denied this was paranormal when I asked him. So, I’ll say its sci-fi.

I love the setting so much because I live in Chicagoland. I like picturing places I’m familiar with. There’s a part in the book where Sara Jane and some student take a field trip up to the sky deck on the Sears Tower (or now the Willis Tower). 103 stories up. I’ve never been on any of the sky decks downtown, but I can imagine it’s amazing. The photos I’ve seen are amazing. Also, lots of tunnels, trains and driving on streets in the story. I’ve been on the Blue Line and the Red Line trains only. Going under ground to board a train is kind of scary. Definitely had an easy time picturing the setting.

The character are great of course. Sara Jane is like Maximum Ride and Katniss Everdeen, except in the contemporary world and with a strange power instead of wings. Sara Jane is a boxer, so she can kick butt. She’s very tough and somewhat serious, but she uses sarcasm. She’s friend with Dough, who’s gay and used to be fat, but lost weigh because of some drugged icecream in the previous book. He’s awesome and obsessed with movies. He’s got a little more serious, mostly because the drug withdrawal. He stupidly takes up smoking even though Sara Jane keep telling him how bad it is.

There’s so much action and mystery in the story. I love the mystery of this “ultimate power.” Sara Jane has a note book and some clue and they have theories to. It’s a surprise what it is. There’s so many crazy events and plot twists. This book is such a mind-blowing finale. I don’t think I could’ve asked for more. The ending is perfect. I waited a year to read this. Should have read it sooner. I read both the first 2 books as ACRs, and met the author at a Pre-Pub event. He’s cool. All three books are signed. If Cold Fury wasn’t offered as an ARC at Anderson’s Bookshop in Naperville, I doubt I would have ever discovered this great series. I’m so happy I did.

Cover Art Review: Fits the subject. Like the Chicago photos.

Spirit and Dust by Rosemary Clement-Moore

Series: Goodnight Family (bk. 2)

Genera: Paranormal Romance/Mystery/Adventure

Subjects: ghosts, psychic ability, supernatural, magic, kidnappings, Chicago, Illinois, Egyptian mythology

Age/Grade Level: Teen and New Adult (because Daisy is a college freshman)

Length: 384 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover

List Price: $17.99

Publisher: Delacorte Press

Summary/ product description: “Daisy Goodnight can speak to the dead. It’s not the result of a head injury or some near-death experience. She was just born that way. And she’s really good at it. Good enough to help the police solve the occasional homicide.

But helping the local authorities clear cold cases is one thing. Being whisked out of chemistry class by the FBI and flown to the scene of a murder/kidnapping in Minnesota? That’s the real deal.

Before the promotion can go to Daisy’s head, she’s up to her neck in trouble. The spirits are talking, and they’re terrified. There’s a real living girl in danger. And when Daisy is kidnapped by a crime boss with no scruples about using magic—and Daisy—to get what he wants, it looks like hers is the next soul on the line.”

My Review: I didn’t think it would be possible that this book would be better than Texas Gothic, the 1^st book in the series, but this was way better. Ridiculously awesome. So many things I didn’t expect. The description barely tells you anything. This book is very different from Texas Gothic. They both have ghosts, but Texas Gothic didn’t have nearly as much action or adventure as Spirit and Dust.

Daisy Goodnight is psychic and can sense spirit energies, of remnants and connections. She can summon then with objects connected to them, talk to them and also help them move on. She’s very sarcastic and funny and wears girly-goth garb. She’s a redhead like her cousin Amy (the narrator of Texas Gothic) and has the same Goodnight determination. I think I like her more than Amy as a narrator. Daisy got a lot more spunk and feels more developed. I almost wish that there can be another book with her as the narrator, instead of a companions series with standalone-sequels. She’s the perfect strong protagonist with unique traits.

Then there’s the other characters. I though Agent Taylor would be the love interest, because he and Daisy had a thing, but that’s not the case.  Daisy meets Carson after being kidnapped by a mobster who’s the father of the kidnapped girl Alexis. Carson doesn’t seem like a hardened criminal. He’s pretty young and too nice. He and Daisy go a search for this Jackal artifact that’s the ransom for Alexis. Carson and Daisy’s romance is the total opposite of insta-love. She even starts to think that she has Stockholm syndrome because she starts to like him. The travel and she’s learns about him.

I also loved the setting. You’d think based off the description that this book would be set in Minnesota. Minnesota was really only the beginning of the book. I’d say 15% set in Minneapolis, Minnesota, 10% set in St Louis, Missouri, and 75% set in Illinois, and mainly Chicago and it’s museums. As a resident Chicagolander, this made me very excited. Another great book set in my home state? Awesome. And the final third or fourth or the book takes place in the Field Museum. My absolute favorite museum to go to. I’ve been there at least 5 times. Probably more. And yes, Sue the T. Rex is awesome. And I did see the Egypt exhibit in 4^th grade, or 5^th. There were a lot of animal mummies down there. I’m never been to the Oriental Institute Museum, but my mom’s been there.

I love the paranormal parts, especially the Egyptian Mythology. I didn’t know that there would be any Egyptian stuff going into this. It really started to remind me of Rick Riordan’s Kane Chronicles series. Looking for artifacts and some brotherhood and everything. I don’t want to spoil the book, but I think that more people would read this if they knew more about it. So it’s not just another ghost-story/murder mystery. This book turned out to be an unexpected surprise, and I really hope that Rosemary write a 3^rd Goodnight book that’s even better. Maybe from Phin’s perspective? I still would like Daisy’s best.

Cover Art Review: Boring cover. It’s just an eye. Daisy’s eye, and a silhouette. There’s nothing that suggests the content.

Flicker & Burn by T.M. Goeglein

Release Date: August 20^th, 2013

Series: Cold Fury (bk. 2)

Genera: Action-Adventure Thriller/Sci-fi

Subjects: Chicago, Illinois, mafia/mob, mystery, missing persons.

Age/Grade Level: Teen 12+

Length: 352 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover

List Price: $17.99

Publisher: Penguin: Putnam

Summary/ product description: “Sara Jane Rispoli is still searching for her missing family, but instead of fighting off a turncoat uncle and crooked cops, this time she finds herself on the run from creepy beings with red, pulsing eyes and pale white skin chasing her through the streets in ice cream trucks; they can only be described as Ice Cream Creatures. They're terrifying and hell bent on killing her, but they're also a link to her family, a clue to where they might be and who has them. While she battles these new pursuers, she's also discovering more about her own cold fury and more about the Chicago Outfit, how the past misdeeds--old murders and vendettas--might just be connected to her present and the disappearance of her family. But connecting the dots is tough and time-consuming and may finally be the undoing of her relationship with the handsome Max--who's now her boyfriend. But for his own safety, Sara Jane may have to end this relationship before it even really starts. Her pursuers who've shown her her mother's amputated finger and the head of the Chicago Outfit who's just whistled her in for a sit-down make a romance unthinkable. The only thing that matters is finding her family and keeping everyone she loves alive.”

 

My Review: As someone who lives in Chicagoland, I love reading YA books set in my area. Besides this series, there’s Divergent, XVI, The Dark Elite series and a few others, but not many. This series does the city more justice than the other I mentioned. Sure, a few names of companies are tweaked (StroBisCo is actually NaBisCo) for the sake of not saying bad things about them. Some places are just completely fictional. But for the most part, it’s really Chicago. I don’t get to go downtown that often, but it’s easy to picture the story because he says what street Sara Jane is on and describe stuff.

The story feels kind of like a diary because there a lot of telling rather than showing, but it works pretty well. I usually prefer more dialogue and descriptions of actions and no info dumping. There’s a lot of stories and anecdote, almost like Sara Jane is writing it, or summarizing it. The author does a good job of making background stories for each of his characters. Since this is a mafia story, it works.

There’s more paranormal-ish stuff (that’s probably more sci-fi than anything else) in this book than the first one. There’s these “Ice Cream Creatures” as Sara Jane calls them. They have red eyes. They seem very odd, and I wondered what they were, in the beginning. And Sara Jane learns more about the Cold Fury, and how it works. I wish there was a paranormal explanation for it. Sadly, the Rispoli’s are not descended from a god or are witches, or anything like that.

The characters are still pretty awesome. Sara Jane is a tough heroine, a real kick-butt girl. Doug, her overweight side kick is funny as ever and begins to act even more ridiculous as the story moves along. Max is a great guy, and there are some very romantic scenes in parts, but the romance doesn’t ply a super huge role in the book. We also get to meet some new characters: Heather, who’s a relative, and a few other relatives. But if I told you too much about them, I’d spoil the surprises.

There were definitely a lot of twists, and the plot was great. I can’t wait to see how it all ends in the final book. Hopefully I can get an ARC of it like I got of Cold Fury and this book. Met the author a prepub event and this is also for another prepub. Anyways, if you’re looking for a YA book worthy of an action-thriller movie, then I recommend this series.

Cover Art Review: I liked the old cover for Cold Fury better. They had to change the cover to something less interesting. Sure, it may have Chicago on it now, but the fire doesn’t look that great on the title. I suggested to the author that he should call the sequel Heat Wave, but Flicker & Burn is nice too.

 

Cold Fury by T. M. Goeglein

Release Date: July 24th

Publisher: Penguine: Putnum

Series: Cold Fury (bk. 1)

Genera: Action thriller/mystery

Subjects: Mob/mafia, Chicago, psychic ability

Length: 313 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover

Summary/ product description: “Jason Bourne meets The Sopranos in this breathtaking adventure
Sara Jane Rispoli is a normal sixteen-year-old coping with school and a budding romance--until her parents and brother are kidnapped and she discovers her family is deeply embedded in the Chicago Outfit (aka the mob).

Now on the run from a masked assassin, rogue cops and her turncoat uncle, Sara Jane is chased and attacked at every turn, fighting back with cold fury as she searches for her family. It's a quest that takes her through concealed doors and forgotten speakeasies--a city hiding in plain sight. Though armed with a .45 and 96K in cash, an old tattered notebook might be her best defense--hidden in its pages the secret to "ultimate power." It's why she's being pursued, why her family was taken, and could be the key to saving all of their lives.
Action packed, with fresh, cinematic writing, Cold Fury is a riveting and imaginative adventure readers will devour.”

My Rating: êêêê

My Review: This book was exciting, but slightly disappointing because it wasn’t as supernatural as I thought. I thought she was a demi-god/vampire/something. She just has an ability that runs in the family. I love the setting. I’m from Chicagoland, so I’m familiar with it. The author may have edited a few things. I also liked the action. The beginning kind of dragged on with her past, but once it got going, it got going. Mafia/mob stuff you don’t see often in YA, especial non-historical and from the point of view of a girl. The story it pretty unique in that way. Sara Jane is a tough character. A girl boxer. The prefer character for an action story like this one.

I recommend this book if you like gangster movies, action, or anything like that. If you’re from Chicago and like YA, read this!

Cover Art Review: Very action looking. The suitcase mentioned in the book. Sara on the cover. I wish there was some Chicago related picture in the background, but oh well.

~Haley G