In the Wreckage by Hailey Turner
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

From the view of a SFF novel, this idea was intriguing. I like the idea of splice and metahumans; I was merely surprised that there were so many of them, considering the genetic mutation is so rare.

As for the story's overall plot, I found it a bit scattered. There seemed to be the general notion of our heroes battling against bio terrorists, but in each battle, they take out a different set of "bad guys". There doesn't seem to be one main goal throughout the narrative. I get that they were going on different assignments, but I feel like if they had a "faction" or a specific group of terrorists against which they carried out their battles, it would feel more cohesive.

Our heroes' love story fell rather flat for me. There is hot sex (really long, drawn-out sex), but little else to their relationship. I would have loved to see some more intimate interaction between these two that wasn't of the sexual variety. It made me not quite believe their love. Also, on the note of the sex... I found it oddly distracting that this author kept using the word "thickening" to describe our heroes' "bits" when after a lot of heavy petting and mouth play they should already be thick enough.

I really wish that the scene-setting was better here. I found that while the descriptions as they are, are decent for blocking (knowing where characters are in relation to one another), they are not at all good enough for me to have an adequate image in my mind of what their surroundings look like. Even an added sentence or small paragraph could make all the difference.

Overall, this book was middle-of-the-road for me. There were a few things that I found off-putting, but I like the idea. 2 1/2 * and I'll read the next book in the series, since I've already purchased it.

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The Nursery by Asia Mackay
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I didn't find this one as great as the first, but I still enjoyed it. The ending was disappointing (not just the cliffhanger); the "big reveal" was anticlimactic and there was no suspense. I found that it read more like a cozy, rather than something heart-pounding. Additionally, I could see the ending coming from the third chapter, which dulled the anticipation of the reveal quite a lot.

After reading the first novel, there was too much repetition at the beginning of this one; I wish that there'd been more creativity in how the info was retold (perhaps in dialogue, for example).

I also found the relationship stuff for Lex to be a bit depressing. The excuse that she gave for not talking to her husband was awfully weak. Maybe if we'd seen her husband talk about the dangers of another job within her hearing, and his expressing being grateful that his wife doesn't do anything so dangerous? Not sure, but maybe that would have upped the tension a bit.

I'll read the next one if it's ever written, just because I want to find out what happens after the cliffhanger. This one, though, was not the greatest.

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