Jaye Ford has a way of hooking you into her stories by creating conflict with questions. Blood Secret starts off well, and like Rennie, you’re initially unsure whether Max was attacked, or if he simply walked away. The story unravels slowly as more and more information comes to light.
As with Illuminae, Gemina is told through a series of emails, instant messages, schematics, classified files, and transcripts. In addition, there is the benefit of Hanna’s journal pages also being included. I love the different format of the way these novels are written. It involves the reader and makes them feel like they are part of the investigation and subsequent trials taking place.
Illuminae isn’t written like a traditional novel. The story unfolds through a “dossier” of hacked documents — emails, ship schematics, military files, IMs, medical reports, interviews, and more.
I am going to begin this review by saying that I don’t read a lot of LGBT novels, but in light of the current ‘postal survey’ on marriage equality initiated by the Australian Government, I decided I should support some of our Aussie LGBT authors.
Like Nevernight, Godsgrave begins by switching back and forth between two different events in Mia’s timeline. It was used to great affect in the first book, but I’m not sure it has the same impact here. The characters I fell in love with – Mia, Ashlinn, and Mercurio – were all back, along with a whole heap of new characters in the form of the Gladiatii.
Nevernight wasn’t at all what I was expecting. The narrator’s viewpoint was a little disorienting for me at first, but by the end I barely noticed it. The comparison between two different scenario’s Jay Kristoff used in the first chapter intrigued and sucked me into Mia’s story. I was invested in her as a main character and wanted her to succeed. I loved that while she was a killer, she had a heart.
