CITY OF THE LOST by Kelley Armstrong & narrated by Thérèse Plummer

I really enjoy Kelley Armstrong's YA books, but I also enjoy her thrillers. This was such an intense read from start to finish and Thérèse Plummer was amazing as a narrated. 

Casey Duncan went against her family of doctors to become a detective, and she has plenty of secrets and people to hide away from. But she agrees to leave the life she knows behind solely to get her best friend, Diana, away from her abusive and controlling ex. After a series of interviews and cash payments, the two of them head to Rockton, a town up in the Yukon that is not discoverable except by those who run it. Casey arrives after Diana and is immediately thrown into a murder case. The only problem is, most of the people in the town are up there under false names, hiding from what they've done, or from those who want to hurt them, making the town full of victims and criminals. Casey must work with Eric Dalton, the town sheriff, as well as Will, the deputy, to solve the case as well as the new ones that keep happening. She also must confront her own secrets, her toxic friendship, and her growing feelings for the uncultured sheriff. As her investigation unravels, she finds her own life at risk while so many twists and turns keep happening.  This was one of my favourite reads this year, and I can't wait to listen to the next in the series!

AETHERBOUND by E. K. Johnston

Pendt Harland grows up on her family's ship, getting only the minimum amount of food needed to keep her alive. She doesn't have the abilities her family desires, so they have her work in the kitchens until she is old enough to be sold off to another ship or a space station. A week before her 18th birthday, she escapes from the Harland onto Brannick Station. There she meets the young heirs of the station who show her that her undesirable mutation is something much more powerful and useful.

This story is charming and sweet with a satisfying ending that left me curious about the next book.

A DARKNESS ABSOLUTE by Kelley Armstrong & narrated by Thérèse Plummer

A Darkness Absolute is another thrilling story by Kelley Armstrong that is set in the city of Rockton. This time, Casey and Will come across a woman trapped in a hole when they are forced to take shelter in a cave during a snowstorm. The woman has been missing for over a year, and her discovery leads to the discovery of the remains of other missing women. Finding out who took them becomes difficult when Casey and Eric must consider suspects from Rockton, nearby settlements, and even hostiles. It takes a lot of digging, but eventually they find the abductor/killer. Or think they do...

I really do love this series by Kelley Armstrong and I think Thérèse Plummer is an amazing narrator. But, as a Canadian, I was thrown off by the pronunciation of toque. It should have the "ew" sound after the t, and not be pronounced as toke. That is something quite different in Canada.

PROJECT HAIL MARY by Andy Weir

I enjoyed Project Hail Mary even more than The Martian. Instead of one man trying to survive on a foreign planet, this story is about one man trying to figure out how to save Earth from a micro-organism from another galaxy. He is light-years away to solve the problem when he meets Rocky, an alien that looks like a five-legged giant spider made of rocks. The two of them are in the Tau Ceti system for the same reason, and work together to save both their planets. But they must learn each others language and culture to do so. When they do find a solution, it causes even more problems.

This is a wonderful story that combines multiple scientific fields, including social sciences to explain what is happening and why the characters do what they do, but it never feels like too much. There is a lot of suspense in the story, right up into the last chapter that kept the pages turning. I also found the scenes that go back in time, and shown as Ryland Grace retrieving a past memory, easy to follow and relevant to what was happening in the current time.

I really enjoyed Project Hail Mary and I look forward to watching the movie version soon!

PENDERGAST: THE BEGINNING by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child 

I've read several of the Pendergast novels by Preston & Child, so when I learned that an origin story was releasing, I wanted to read it. Especially after rereading Relic last year. In this novel, Pendergast joins the New Orleans Field Office as a probationary FBI agent under Special Agent Chambers. When the two of them are suspended for not doing an investigation by the rules, Pendergast looks deeper into similar cases that could be related. But where Chambers wants to find a simple explanation, Pendergast believes nothing is that simple and once again goes against the rules to entertain his hunch. In the end, the case is not so simple and even more gruesome than Pendergast believed.

I really enjoyed this insight into Pendergast's beginnings as an FBI agent. It reveals how his mind works—very different from the average mind iykyk—while also giving us other details of his life, some of which have been revealed in other books in the series. And the epilogue is from Relic, so it's a smooth transition for those who haven't read it.

I do wonder if there will be a book written from an even earlier time in Pendergast's life, specifically his and Proctor's time with Ghost Company.

COLD ETERNITY by S.A. Barnes 

I think this might be my favourite of the three space horrors I read by S.A. Barnes. Halley is searching for a place to hide out and ends up on a space barge containing cryogenically frozen beings hoping to circumvent death. 

But there are things happening on the barge that make Halley question her own sanity, from finger bones and strange noises to glitchy AI holograms and missing bodies.

As Halley tries to solve the mysteries of the barge, she learns the truth is much more frightening than she expected. And she is highly unlikely to ever leave. If she survives another day.

This book is quite the thrill ride from beginning to end, and the truth was much more gruesome and messed up than what I expected. Halley's back story was well-developed and the other characters were creepy, even those I liked. 

I definitely look forward to more by S.A. Barnes! 

GAME CHANGER by Rachel Reid

I grew up in a hockey town and went to school with a lot of hockey players, some of whom went further than playing for the local Jr. B team. Because of that, I was never interested in reading a hockey romance. Then the TV show, Heated Rivalry came along, and I loved it! And as an author, I wanted to read the source material, so I bought the first six books in the series.

While Scott and Kip's story isn't exactly the same in the book as it is on screen, I thoroughly enjoyed reading how their relationship developed, while witnessing the passion between them and the struggles they faced. Even though both are super sweet characters with some amazing friends and family members, the beginning of their relationship is quite a roller coaster ride. It all felt very real as though it played out in real life. I truly enjoyed Game Changer and look forward to Heated Rivalry next!

HEATED RIVALRY by Rachel Reid

As with Game Changer, I read Heated Rivalry after watching the show on Crave. A great book! I'm so glad Rachel Reid wrote it and that Jacob Tierney enjoyed it and decided to turn it into a series that closely followed the book. It was interesting to note the slight changes in how Shane and Ilya's story started between the two, and to catch further glimpses into their relationship that we didn't see in the show. I definitely look forward to more of Shane and Ilya's story in The Long Game and Unrivaled, as well as other books in the Game Changers series.

AURORA BLAZING by Jessie Mihalik

Aurora Blazing is a fast-paced space adventure with a slow burn romance that could almost be considered a second-chance romance. It is engaging with wonderful characters and a happily for now ending that suits both characters well.

Bianca is a one of the House von Hasenberg daughters and she is still recovering from the sudden death of her husband and the experiments he performed on her. When her brother is abducted with no hints as to who took him, she uses her connections and her other new abilities to search along with her siblings for any clues to his whereabouts. But the information she seeks requires a personal touch, which is hard to get when she's constantly under surveillance. She sneaks past the house security and flees to find her brother. But Ian, the House's director of security is after her to bring her back home. It's bad enough that Ian won't give her a chance to help, but he is also the man who broke her heart before her arranged marriage.

Aurora Blazing is Bianca's race to escape Ian, find her brother, and then ignore her increasing attraction to Ian when he does manage to catch up to her.

While a complete romance story, Aurora Blazing is part of an overall series arc that started with Polaris Rising.