Saturday Reading Wrap-up - 2/27/21

It was an interesting week in reading.  Here's the skinny...

This week, I picked up a few ereads by people I know.  A friend released a box set that I snagged, an acquaintance put a 'first book in the series' out for free, and a short story anthology a friend of mine has a story in was free yesterday.  I also snagged a couple other ebooks that looked interesting - a mystery and a thriller.  AND I picked up the sequel to the book I finished last night.  No new hardcopies.

Books Read: 

11) The Ambitious Card by John Gaspard (2/26/21) - Mystery* - 5 stars.  New to me, but with 85 stars, I can't really call it underappreciated for my purposes.  (It's still underappreciated if you ask me, though.)  Free off the ENT newsletter.
Review: "Wow. Pardon me while I gush, but it's been a while since I picked up a mystery this good and I'm kinda geeky that way. This is an exceptional story with an excellent mystery, awesome and quirky characters, interesting locations, and a thrilling plot. Plus, loads of humor. I actually did laugh out loud in a couple places. Also, I loved the insights into psychics and magicians, too. So much fun! I'm so glad I took a chance on this new-to-me author. I'm definitely looking forward to more of this series."
Note: Available in audio.

10) Fighting for Justice by Silver James (2/20/21) - Paranormal Romantic Suspense* - 5 stars.  Not new to me, but a new release so probably way underappreciated.  As good as it is, I expect that won't last long.  Paid full price - $3.99.  
Review: "OMG, I loved this book like damn and whoa. I loved Justice. I loved Jack. The two of them together? Amazing. Plus, such a satisfying end to the suspense part of the story. So much awesome."

DNFs:

2/23/21 - free - mystery.  I'm not even sure what kind of weird ass prologue I was reading there, and then it jumped to some kind of bizarre list of important events of the 1980s - I guess for those people who didn't live it - and by the time I was past that, I didn't care enough to read the actual book.

2/23/21 - free - suspense.  So many flaws.  I tried to muddle through, but then I reached a spot where the cops were supposed to be notifying an important man that his daughter had been kidnapped, but before they bothered, they got into a big conversation about the man's company's new product.  Umm, yeah.  I'm sure the author spent loads of time researching that, but that was not the time to put all that in the story.  "Oh, sorry we've spent valuable time chatting like fan dudes at a techie convention, but your chauffeur's in the hospital and your kid's been kidnapped."  If I was the dad, I'd have both their jobs and the MC wouldn't be the MC anymore.  

2/22/21 - Free - UF.  Argh.  I wanted to like this one, but it had so many flaws - misspellings, typos, etc.  It really could've used a good editor.  And it was like the author found one Scottish slang term, didn't bother looking for more, and then used it constantly.  I made it to 30% and then gave up trying to like this book.  =o\

Currently reading... I didn't pick anything new to read after I finished that awesome mystery last night.  I did buy the sequel, but I think I might insert something else between these stories and give myself a chance to come down from the high.

What was on your reading list last week?