Showing posts with label thriller. Show all posts
Can Tessa pose as Madison . . . and stop a killer before it’s too late?
Tessa is a Variant, able to absorb the DNA of anyone she touches and mimic their appearance. Shunned by her family, she’s spent the last two years training with the Forces with Extraordinary Abilities, a secret branch of the FBI. When a serial killer rocks a small town in Oregon, Tessa is given a mission: she must impersonate Madison, a local teen, to find the killer before he strikes again.
Tessa hates everything about being an impostor—the stress, the danger, the deceit—but loves playing the role of a normal girl. As Madison, she finds friends, romance, and the kind of loving family she’d do anything to keep. Amid action, suspense, and a ticking clock, this super-human comes to a very human conclusion: even a girl who can look like anyone struggles the most with being herself.
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I received this from NetGalley in exchange for a honest review.Impostor wasn't my first Susanne Winnacker's book that I've read, I've read The Orher Life too. So I had certain expections about this book based on The Other Life. My expections were met and this was really great book.
The main character is Tessa, a Variant, who can absorb other people's DNA and mimic their appearance. There are all kinds of Variant, one can turn invincible, one can reads minds and someone is superstrong. There all kinds of people with different gifts. Their abilities are inheritable, but useally they skip one generation. Tessa lives in FEA's (secret branch of the FBI) training facility with other Variants. Tessa's childhood was pretty lousy, her mother thought that Tessa was a freak, especially when Tessa couldn't control her ability as a child.
Tessa gets a chance to go on a real mission to catch a serial murderer in small town in Oregon. Tessa's job is to impersonate Madison, one of the victims. Being a impostor terrifies Tessa, but she also loves playing the role of a normal girl in a normal family. But Tessa needs to remember that her job is to kind the murderer before it's too late. And they have no clue who the murderer is. There are multiple suspects. Is it the jealous ex-boyfriend? Or maybe Madison's brother who seems to be hiding something? Or is possible that it could be the english teacher who was maybe more than just a teacher to Madison? Tessa's job is to look for clues and to find out who had the motive to kill Madison and others.
The idea about "superhero teenager" is nothing new, and the first that came to my mind was X-Men. And there are some similarities. Not that much, but the basic idea is similar. But the story is well written and I loved the characters. They're deep and well thought. There were those small details about their past and personality that made them whole. And there were these little things that were left pretty vague, like Tessa's family, and maybe we'll learn more about then in next books. Tessa's father and brother were mentioned, but that was it. Nothing else was told, so I'm pretty sure that we'll get back to that in some point. I hope. I'm pretty curious about them and I have my own theories (as usual).
The story progressed nicely and there were balance. Action, romance, mystery, thriller.. They were all there and I believe that there were something for everyone. Some questions were left without answer, so there's something to look forward to in next books.
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(As White as Snow, Snow White, #2)
5/5
Lumikki Andersson is backpacking in Prague, where the weather is scorching hot. A girl approaches her in a small café and claims to be her half sister. Lumikki’s parents seem to be hiding a secret concerning the family’s past, so the girl’s claim rouses Lumikki’s interest. Despite her erratic behaviour, the girl manages to persuade Lumikki to join a religious family community. Later it turns out that the members are no relation to each other, after all. But it is not until Lumikki learns that the cult leaders are planning mass suicide that she understands just how dangerous the cult is. Furthermore, someone is planning to profit from the tragedy. Lumikki gets acquainted with the streets and graveyards of Prague when she is forced to run for her life to prevent the tragedy. The religion of the cult is not pure; and innocence is not as white as snow.
Once upon a time, there was a girl who had a secret.
Lumikki's story continues. This time freezing Tampere has switched to scorching hot Prague. This time the story feels more real when it's not happening in Finland.
I love Simukka's writing style, it's so detailed that I could really imagine being there and seeing what Lumikki is seeing. After reading this book, Prague is in my "must visit someday"-list.
The second book wasn't as difficult to read or as confusing as the first one. Maybe it was 'cos I got used to Simukka's writing style or maybe this was just more straightforward-type of book. I donät know whick one, but I really loved this book and finished it in only few hours.
The book wasn't too long, story progression was just perfect. There were enough details, but things also happened pretty fast and you couldn't get bored. This was one of those book that I needed to finish in one sitting. I just couldn't put it down, there were always something exciting happening. I must say that I'm really looking forward to reading next and final book in this series that will be published in couple weeks.
(As Red as Blood, The Snow White Trilogy, #1, pub. Aug. 2014)
5/5
In the midst of the freezing Arctic winter, seventeen-year-old Lumikki Andersson walks into her school’s dark room and finds a stash of wet, crimson-colored money. Thousands of Euros left to dry—splattered with someone’s blood.
Lumikki lives alone in a studio apartment far from her parents and the past she left behind. She transferred into a prestigious art school, and she’s singularly focused on studying and graduating. Lumikki ignores the cliques, the gossip, and the parties held by the school’s most popular and beautiful boys and girls.
But finding the blood-stained money changes everything. Suddenly, Lumikki is swept into a whirlpool of events as she finds herself helping to trace the origins of the money. Events turn even more deadly when evidence points to dirty cops and a notorious drug kingpin best known for the brutality with which he runs his business.
As Lumikki loses control of her carefully constructed world, she discovers that she’s been blind to the forces swirling around her—and she’s running out of time to set them right. When she sees the stark red of blood on snow, it may be too late to save her friends or herself.
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Once upon a time, there was a girl who learned to be afraid.I rarely read finnish literature, but this was one of those that I just had to read. Everytime I went to bookstore, it just sat there in the shelf watching me and I just couln't ignore it anymore. And I've read so many great reviews, that I thought that it has to be a great book. And the reason why I'm reviewing this book here is that the translation rights has been sold to Amazon and this book will be published in english in August 2014.
It feels weird to read these kind of book in finnish, all this druglord-stuff feels so absurd, when events happen in a town that's less than 100 miles away. Of course we have crime here in Finland too, but Finland is so small country that it's usually in lot smaller scale. Or maybe it just isn't in media so much, that we don't notice it. I mean, we have 5,5 million people in the while country and our biggest city Helsinki has about 600 000 people. So the stuff in this book feels so far away, it almost unreal. I guess that it's possible that it really happens, but it just feels weird. But yeah, that's it about that. Maybe I just need to focus on this book and not in Finland general...
I love how this book is written. It's really detailed, so you can really almost imagine you're in there. I could close my eyes and I could imagine everything and how it would look. I don't know if I know how to say it right, but the wording in this book was interesting. I mean that sentences weren't straight. I don't know. I'm not probably saying it right. But yeah, it was really interesting way to write, it was different and it was really detailed.
Second thing that was interesting was that there were multiple pov's. And sometimes there were little timejumps, like flashbacks. There were few times when I was a little lost at first and there were some scenes that didn't make sense, they felt like they didn't have anything to do with the story. But this is a trilogy and maybe htere are things that will make sense when I read the next book. I loaned it too from library and I'm going to read it next.
I don't know what more can I say about the plot, synopsis says everything you need to know. There isn't much I can say without spoiling too much. But I really liked it, even when it's not the usual genre I read. Lumikki is a character that feels real. Like a real person and not just a character in a book.
Salla Simukka, you are my new favourite finnish author and I'm definally going to read more your work.
Sometimes even I need a little break from vampires and werewolves and stuff and when that happens, I have few favourite authors whose books I like to read. And the honor this time goes to Mary Higgins Clark. She is one wonderful lady. Some of you may know her, she's written so many books that it's almost miracle if haven't heard of her. She is the murder queen. She is Queen of Suspence.
She's been writing since the 70's I think. I think I (and my mother) own about 20 of her books. Maybe more. So there are lots of her books that I haven't read. This time my "escape-from-fantasy" book is...
It has been ten years since twenty-one-year-old Charles MacKenzie Jr. ("Mack") went missing. A Columbia University senior, about to graduate and already accepted at Duke University Law School, he walked out of his apartment on Manhattan's Upper West Side without a word to his college roommates and has never been seen again. However, he does make one ritual phone call to his mother every year: on Mother's Day. Each time, he assures her he is fine, refuses to answer her frantic questions, then hangs up. Even the death of his father, a corporate lawyer, in the tragedy of 9/11 does not bring him home or break the pattern of his calls.
Mack's sister, Carolyn, is now twenty-six, a law school graduate, and has just finished her clerkship for a civil court judge in Manhattan. She has endured two family tragedies, yet she realizes that she will never be able to have closure and get on with her life until she finds her brother. She resolves to discover what happened to Mack and why he has found it necessary to hide from them. So this year when Mack makes his annual Mother's Day call, Carolyn interrupts to announce her intention to track him down, no matter what it takes. The next morning after Mass, her uncle, Monsignor Devon MacKenzie, receives a scrawled message left in the collection basket: "Uncle Devon, tell Carolyn she must not look for me."
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The idea behind this book was pretty mush the same as in all Mary Higgins Clark books. Young wealthy well-educated woman with a mystery. This time it's missing brother. There are also some romance (like always) and as usual he is an old "friend". Well, her brother's friend. All the usual elements are there.
The book was book as always and as always I didn't have clue about the bad guy. There was few times when I suspected, but I wasn't sure. I read this book in finnish, so I don't if it was the translation or if this book really wasn't as good as usually they are. The writing was sometimes "clumsy". I don't know better word for it. It could have been that there was just lousy translator.
I've read a lot of her books and usually I really enjoy them. But this one... I don't know. I just felt tired. It felt like every book is the same. This time it didn't work. It just felt old. Everything was old news. I'm sorry, but couldn't she invent something new for a change.
Sorry, but I really was kinda disappointed with this book. I've liked Higgins Clark's book for years and I don't know why I didn't like this one.
