Chosen by K.F. Breene

I completely enjoyed "Chosen". 3.6 Stars. I recommend it to fantasy fans who love female protagonist and like books with a good dose of sexual tension. It's PG13 for language, violence, and sexual innuendo.

Shanti, our protagonist, is a clone of Millicent in Fate of Perfection in Ms. Breen's Finding Paradise series and the sexual tension is the same as well. I thought Millicent was fun, but Shanti, not so much in the romantic push-pull Ms. Breene likes to write. She did a lovely job of having Shanti speak a foreign language and pick up the local language quickly. I would recommend the book on that alone if you're a blooming writer. It was the kind of humor that deeply amuses me.

The sales pitch is Shanti is The "Chosen" one, who, via prophecy, will bring powerful warriors out of some mystery place and conquer raiding hordes of Tolkienesk dark and evil foes.

I think that sales pitch will eventually be accurate for the entire series. That isn't what happened in this book. I admit I can forget what I read yesterday and read it today like I'd never read it before, but I was paying attention as this is good book with interesting characters.

Ok, I believe it is time to tell you as much as the sales blurb spoilers, so if you like going in blind, get the book and move along. If spoilers whet your appetite for more, dig in.

Out of the Dark

Gregg Hurwitz only gets better. I really liked, "Out of the Dark". 4.4 stars. I recommend you start your Evan Smoak journey with "Orphan X", which made Mr. Hurwitz one of my favorite authors. Then get through "The Nowhere Man", then put on your seat belt for "Hellbent" and "Out of the Dark".

Four books into a series even the official sales blurbs are spoilers, so if you want to enjoy this book without preconceived impressions from this review, it's time to move along. If spoilers only encourage you, lets get with it.

Hellbent

Hellbent by Gregg Hurwitz

Hellbent is the 3rd Orphan X novel. I really liked this one. 4.2 of 5 stars. I recommend it. Yes, you can read it alone, I think that would be a horrible idea and may spoil the 6 book experience (as of Jan 2020).

Evan Smoak has become one of my favorite characters. I think the molding of Mr. Hurwitz's character, Evan Smoak, is being done with a hammer on an anvil — and I'm confident Mr. Hurwitz has been required to routinely open a vein and pour some of his writing heart and soul into the character. He didn't pour the Orphan X books into the genre mold, tweak it here and there, and then put some extra meat or bones into the plots. By the end of Hellbent, if you're a seasoned reader, you know that our author has spent countless hours with Evan Smoak, and he knew what Evan was going to do in book six before he was half finished writing book one. I may be wrong…

What would it take for you to become "hellbent"?

Movie goers may recall when Jason Bourne's girlfriend is murdered. Bourne was hellbent! Similar excitement junkies clearly understand "Hellbent" when John Wick's dog is killed and his car stolen.

The Nowhere Man by Gregg Hurwitz

I liked The Nowhere Man by Gregg Hurwitz: 3 Stars. Recommend 👍.

I thought book #1, Orphan X, and book #3, Hellbent, were better. This book seemed to lag and become tedious several chapters before the climax.

The Nowhere Man is the 2nd "Orphan X" novel. The novels are "Secret Agent" type of action thrillers. In these novels orphans vanish into the "Orphan Program"-a CIA type of agency where these select orphans are trained from childhood to be invisible and extraordinarily dangerous. Orphans are one person Mission Impossible agents. Evan Smoke is Orphan X a designation similar to 007. For reasons established in the first book, he has gone rogue. As our protagonist he becomes a John Wick type of Ray Donovan except he fixes the nightmares of desperate folks who have nowhere to turn for help.

She stops sleeping. She starts plucking out her hair in patches. She cuts herself at school, hoping the pain will wake her from this nightmare.

Father of one of her classmates see the signs. He finds her sobbing in a 7-Eleven bathroom when she should be in homeroom. With a cane and fresh limp he goes and gives her a phone number: 1-855-2-NOWHERE. "He'll answer. He'll help," the injured friend's father says. She dials.

Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë 

My Rating: 3 of 5 [I liked it]

This review is of the Amazon Classics ebook edition and the companion audiobook. For the folks who might read this review and have not read Wuthering Heights but plan to, I'll try to save you some likely frustration. 

The first three chapters are from Mr. Lockwood's point of view, which is read by Michael Page in the audiobook. Mr. Lockwood rents Thrushcross Grange and visits the landlord at Wuthering Heights to be sociable. He becomes bewildered by how he is mistreated.  Despite being informed his visit was not appreciated, Mr. Lockwood vows to return the next day.  Upon returning the next day he is stranded there by weather and discovers his earlier horrible treatment is not unusual.  I suspect he felt it similar to an undesired visit to Newgate Prison or The Tower of London Prison.