As I Lay Reading

Book Reviews & Occasional Author and Book - Fangirling

Karina Halle’s Ashes to Ashes

January 21, 2014 By Kellie Leave a Comment

Karina Halle - Ashes to Ashes

I’m just going to go on record and say it right now… I am so sad this series is coming to an end.  So sad in fact, that while I bought the book the day it was released, I couldn’t bring myself to read it until at least a week later.

The awesome 3 — Perry, Dex and newly added producer / best friend Rebecca travel to a haunted school in New England to investigate.  The ghost children and Creepy Clown Lady — now known as  Perry’s late grandmother, Pippa – find their way into Perry’s dream.  Pippa delivers a warning that Perry should not investigate this school and should in fact, quit Experiment in Terror altogether.

There are a lot of nostalgic moments in this novel and you can tell throughout the book that Karina Halle is wrapping things up for these characters.  I personally enjoyed the fact that the characters got to revel in some shared memories.  From the reader’s standpoint, it makes you feel like you are part of these characters lives in some small way.

Also, in Ashes to Ashes, we learn more definitively that Ada is afflicted with a similar gift to Perry.  Ada can also see the dead.  This of course makes sense as Karina Halle has said on her website that she intends to make an Ada Palomino series.  Definitely not a series to be missed.

Ashes to Ashes has lots of grit, bad ass musical references and sexiness infused!  If you loved the other novels in the Experiment in Terror series, then this is definitely one to devour!

Truth be told, I want to dissect and discuss this book from beginning to end.  This book and this entire series are that good.
SPOILER ALERT (if you have not read Come Alive  or Ashes to Ashes – then go no further.  Otherwise, mouseover and click on the text below to read)

[su_spoiler title=”Spoiler — Come Alive & Ashes to Ashes” style=”fancy” anchor=”Ashes to Ashes”]In Come Alive – Dex learns that he and Perry cannot have children for two reasons:

1) If she has a child with Dex, it is likely that she will be possessed (again).

2) The child will have the same gift / affliction that Perry and Dex have but times like 10000.

This would put the child in even more danger. In Ashes to Ashes, Perry is still clueless about this fact. While it is not brought up, I am going out on a limb to speculate that this will be one of the major points of the story in the final book for the Experiment in Terror Series: Dust to Dust.

My hope (and this is pure speculation) is that Dex and Perry form some kind of paranomal research society and Karina Halle creates a spinoff series from that. I’m probably alone in this — but i’m just not ready to let these characters go.[/su_spoiler]

 My Rating For Ashes To Ashes:

5 star rating for Ashes to Ashes

Stephen King’s 11-22-63

December 28, 2013 By Kellie 6 Comments

Stephen King's 11-22-63

I’m not a big Stephen King fan.  At least, I wasn’t — until I read Stephen King’s 11/22/63.

What if John F. Kennedy had never been shot?  What if — YOU got the chance to go back in time and prevent the tragic event from happening?  In fact, what if you could go back in time and prevent any tragic event from happening?  This is exactly the premise that King’s 11-22-63 is built upon.

The story opens and introduces us to Jacob (Jake) Epping– a divorced high school teacher who has lost meaning to his life.  One of his GED students — the school janitor named Harry Dunning —  writes a story entitled “The Day That Changed My Life”.  The story is about Harry’s alcoholic father who murders his mother and siblings and leaves him permanently brain-damaged.  The story was so good that Jake gave Harry an A+.

Eventually Harry earns his GED.  To celebrate, Jake takes him out to dinner at Al Templeton’s diner.  Al’s diner is a place where Jake visits often.  Although he is certain that Al has to be using rat meat for his famous hamburgers because the cost is so low.

A couple of years later, Al asks Jake to meet him at the diner.  He then tells Jake that a few years ago, he found a time portal in the pantry.  He used the portal to transport himself back in time to September 9, 1958 and that no matter how long he stays in the past, when he comes back to 2011 — he finds that he has only stayed for 2 minutes.  Also, past events can be changed.

Jake decides to use the time portal to prevent the tragedy that befell Harry Dunning and his family.

King takes his readers on a wild ride with this story.  You won’t believe some of the situations Jake ends up in.

Just because you can change the past, doesn’t mean you should.

My Rating For Steven King’s 11-22-63:

5-star rating for Stephen King's 11-22-63

 

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