Book Review: Wired in (Paradise Crime #1) by Toby Neal

Special Agent Sophie Ang has had a hard life. From being kidnapped as a child to having a mentally unstable mother, and even a very abusive ex husband, she’s been on constant guard since she can remember. Now as an FBI Agent, she sleuths around and saves people, never giving herself a break. That is, until her personal trainer finishes up with her training and starts flirting with her. Could this be just the break she needs?

3/5 Stars 282 pages
Published March 11th 2021 by Neal Enterprises

Spoiler alert: It’s not. Everything is always more complicated than it seems at first glance. An action packed story, it doesn’t even really stop to give to time to breathe. A good plot with a very strong female lead, I enjoyed reading it, but I do have a few complaints leading to why this isn’t my new favourite book.

See, a lot of the info really seems to be thrown at you to just remember. Why? Not really any reason. Her parent’s relationship with her, her friends that aren’t really that close with her, and even her job, because I can’t really even explain fully what she does. She lives in Hawaii, has a dog, and never really sees anyone, but that’s all I know. Special Agent? Might as well be a plain old detective.

The other problem that I have is that there’s no warning to even elude that there may be possibly triggering scenes. They come on very suddenly and really scared me to read honestly, just out of the blue like that. Sophie has the occasional flashback to her abusive ex husband, including the horrific time he had non-consensual sex with her. And that’s something that needs to have a warning, I think. Sophie also reminds me of a bad sitcom stereotype, always swearing in another language.

Photo by Roberto Nickson on Pexels.com

That being said, I did like the story, I just didn’t love it. I felt like I had to kind of push myself through the entire book, and that’s not really something I enjoy doing. It’s interesting, and I don’t regret reading it, it’s just not my cup of tea. I think it’s good for any adult reader who doesn’t get triggered easily, and likes a good mystery novel in Hawaii.

If you’d like to grab a copy, you can here.

And if you’d like to keep up with the author, you can on Twitter here!

Thanks for reading, and I hope you’re having a great night!

A Walk Through Hell, Volume 1 by Garth Ennis, Goran Sudžuka, Mike Marts & Rob Steen Review

Though I liked the cover for this book and the description sounded right up my alley, this book fell a little flat for me when compared to other horror comics. Though I’ve read a bunch of comics from Aftershock Comics before, I might have had my hopes a little high for the gore in this story. It is interesting, but it just wasn’t my new favourite story, and it was a little confusing with the flashbacks, or whatever they were. That being said, it wasn’t the worst, and I did like reading it.

 

3/5 Stars 120 pages
Published December 11th 2018 by Aftershock Comics

It starts off with a man and a woman going through a mall with a baby. Someone shoots the baby point blank, and the woman holding it dies too. Turns out six people were murdered that day, just two days before Christmas. This is when we’re introduced to Special FBI Agents Shaw and McGregor, who are headed to their job, reading tweets about the murders the whole way.

 

Through their investigation of the murders, they’re lead to a warehouse where people go in, and they don’t come back out. The swat team outside kills themselves out of fear of the place, and before they can stop the special agents, they head on in. This is the beginning of the strangest day of their lives. Sort of a Silent Hill vibe, they are knocked unconscious by an unknown factor. Waking up, they realize that they have no pulse. They start hearing things, and then wonder if they’re both hallucinating when they find a man that just is blowing his head off over and over and over again. Have they been transported to Hell? Judging by the title, I would say yes.

 

With all that out of the way, let me say that what I didn’t like about this, was the kind of disconnected flashbacks that they were having while in this warehouse. I was confused by them, wondering how they got out and went to a diner or back to the station when everyone else couldn’t get out. And then I realized they were memories. I also was hoping for more gore than there was in this book, but that’s my bad. I liked the characters, but I didn’t really get to know them in this volume. The world they live in is like our own, but clearly there’s a hell on earth somehow.

 

Will I be reading the next volume? I’m not sure. I don’t have a favourite character, and I wasn’t super into the story, but I did think it was spooky and intriguing. It wasn’t my cup of tea, but who’s to say it won’t be yours? Check it out if you think you’d like it.

You can grab a copy for yourself here.

Here’s a link to the only one of the creator’s Twitter accounts I could find, if you’d like to keep up with them.

 

Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think below, and I hope you have a good day.