Stranger Still (Strange Series Book 3) - Marilyn Messik

Telepathy, along with sundry other odd abilities, have landed Stella more than once, in situations at best controversial, at worst life-threatening. But she’s always known; you have to fight your own corner as best you can, no point beating yourself up about it.

Now though, times have changed, different priorities. She’s married, with a baby on the way and a flourishing business. She simply has to deal with a couple of worrying issues and then all should be smooth sailing.

But, isn't it a fact; just when you think you’ve got all your ducks in a row, life can turn right around and bite you on the bottom?

What did I think?

I've really been enjoying the Strange Series so the third book, Stranger Still barely hit the doormat before I'd scooped it up and started reading.  I do think you have to read this series in sequential order as Stranger Still, although hugely entertaining in its own right, won't make as much sense as a standalone.  For anyone new to the series, or a refresher for established fans, Marilyn Messik has very kindly included a cast of characters at the beginning.  I love little extra touches like this.

So in this third outing, we find newly married main character Stella in grave danger in the prologue.  I wasn't too worried as there hasn't been a sticky situation she hasn't yet got herself out of, however, as I continued to read the tension and danger seemed to mount.  Just what has Stella got caught up in this time?  Whatever it is, it had my heart in my mouth at times.  I think that not only because I have read the earlier books but because Marilyn Messik has created such an unusual and unforgettable character in Stella, I feel as if I know Stella personally so I was really worried for her and her friends.  Especially as Stranger Still has a darker feel to it than the other books.

Not only are the characters unique, but Marilyn Messik's style of writing is one of a kind.  Marilyn has a wonderfully dry sense of humour that adds depth to her quirky characters and she also has a knack for finishing her chapters with oodles of suspense which ensure you need to read 'just one more chapter' until there are no more left. 

With the usual 'strange' cast of characters, Stranger Still is another brilliant instalment in the exceptional Strange Series.  I thought Stranger Still was the conclusion to a trilogy but I was delighted to read in the acknowledgements that there are more adventures to come.  Uniquely different and strange with a capital S, I've loved all three books and I heartily recommend this series.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

My rating:

Buy it from Amazon

Witch Dust - Marilyn Messik

For Sandra, daughter of illusionists, Adam and Ophelia, life’s never been run of the mill! But when Adam’s wandering eye lights on yet another conquest, Sandra’s caught in the reverberations of her parents acrimonious parting. Coerced into restoring her depressed Mother to the bosom of a family Sandra never knew existed, she’s sucked into a situation that even for her is unnerving. 

From being without a single relative, she suddenly acquires several she’d rather do without. Ophelia, it appears, has not been entirely honest about any number of things. There’s no doubt in Sandra’s mind, the sooner she puts as much distance as possible between herself, the newly discovered nearest and dearest with their peculiar tendencies and failing hotel business, the happier she’s going to be.

There are just a few things to sort first including a possessed chef; a hanged housemaid; a fly-on-the-wall documentary and a doppelgänger. Things slide swiftly from bad to farce and then get a hell of a lot darker. One minute she’s saving the family business the next, battling to save their lives. Turns out, some darknesses, once buried, are best left undisturbed.

What did I think?

I've read the first two books in the Strange Series (which I highly recommended) so I know that Marilyn Messik spins a good yarn and standalone novel Witch Dust is a hugely entertaining story.  It starts with a bang and rather like a boulder rolling downhill it seems to gather pace with the turn of each page; I was turning pages so fast I'm surprised I didn't end up with a load of paper cuts.  I also have to say that the cover is completely awesome; it looks like the Bates Motel and that fits perfectly with the story actually.

Sandra's parents, Adam and Ophelia, are famous illusionists and for them all the world is a stage.  In typical showbiz fashion, Sandra's real name is Serenissima but she is happy to stay behind the curtain and out of the limelight.  Over the years, Sandra sees a few strange things going on in the show that appear to be more than an illusion but magic isn't real, is it?

After a fight with Adam, Ophelia turns up in Sandra's living room and asks Sandra to drive her to her family home.  There's nothing odd about that except Ophelia has always told Sandra that she was adopted and had no real family.  Finding out that she has family she never knew about comes as quite a shock for Sandra but there are many more shocks and surprises in store for her when she meets them.  Let's just say that they make The Addams Family look normal.

Much like a disturbance in the force, Sandra and Ophelia arriving at the family home, which the family have turned into a hotel, results in a lot of interest from the local community.  It's not a spoiler to say (as the title is Witch Dust after all) that it could be seen as a 'gathering' and with so many strange things happening, I was reading with a growing feeling of unease and a sense of impending danger.  The story is so compelling, and Marilyn Messik has a knack of ending her chapters with cliffhangers, that you can't help but read 'one more chapter' that turns into about ten more chapters until suddenly you've read the whole book in no time at all.

Witch Dust is such a magical, spooky and unique book; it's like an episode of Supernatural, Bewitched and Charmed all rolled into one.  Prepare to expect the unexpected and you'll still be shocked and surprised; I absolutely loved it.  If you're looking to read something different for a change, you won't get more different than Witch Dust.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

My rating:

Buy it from Amazon

Tales of Mystery Unexplained - Steph Young

Tales of Mystery Unexplained....What happened to Elisa Lam, found dead in a water tower atop a hotel roof? Who were the two men who came to see her & what was in the mystery box they gave her? Why did the location of her gravestone match the zip code of a Bookstore, miles away?  

Why was a man found in the same spot he disappeared, but 4 years later, with a hole in his head that no surgeons could explain? And what did this have to do with a séance, doppelgangers & the assassination of Abraham Lincoln?  Why did a man write the Fibonacci sequence as a clue & tell a stranger he was “Looking for the Beast,” before he disappeared in the barren plains of a desert?  Plus many more Tales of Mystery Unexplained.  

Steph Young has appeared on national radio shows & podcasts including the UK's The Unexplained, and Coast to Coast Am, talking about many of these mysteries.  

You can also hear some of these Unexplained Mysteries on her podcast on iTunes ‘Tales of Mystery Unexplained.’

What did I think?

With having so many books to read, it's rare that I read a newly received book, however, Tales of Mystery Unexplained sounded so unique that it didn't even have time to gather a single speck of dust on my TBR.  When you read so much fiction, there's nothing better than reading some real life mysteries and Steph Young has chosen some amazing true stories to recount that are indeed stranger than fiction.

As I've often said, I love reading books that have me pausing to google things and boy did I hit google when reading this book!  I think I would have read the book a lot faster if I hadn't kept stopping to google, but in doing so it made reading a completely three dimensional experience.  I not only experienced the fantastic descriptions provided by Steph Young, but I got to see some things with my own eyes thanks to CCTV shared on the internet.

I love how some of the stories had me revelling in the unexplained but simultaneously considering scientific explanations.  It really made me appreciate how complex the human brain is and just like a computer, how badly things can go wrong when it fails.  Although I felt that psychotic break could maybe explain part of what happened in some cases, it certainly doesn't apply to all of them.  

As per the title, what you won't find in this book is explanations for these mysteries.  They are very much open and unexplained cases and this wasn't as unsatisfying as I first expected.  I admit that part of me would have liked a nice explanation to finish off each story but the fact that they remain unexplained is definitely part of the charm of this book.  I did find myself asking questions and thinking outside of the box, almost as if I was part of the investigation team myself.

I was surprised to find that a good proportion of the stories were from the UK, in fact 7 out of 12, with the remainder being American mysteries.  There's also a good spread of time periods with the earliest story dating back to 1621 and the latest being the intriguing case of Elisa Lam in 2013.  I had never heard of this case but I bet that everyone who reads the book will end up googling the CCTV footage from a Los Angeles hotel elevator of the last known movements of Elisa Lam.  

The content is fascinating and well written, although I did find the text a little repetitive at times; this would work well in a podcast to stress important facts but wasn't really needed in print.  The cover of the book also disturbed me a little with the title appearing to be 'Tales of Unexplained Mystery' rather than 'Tales of Mystery Unexplained' as per the spine and title page.  They were just minor annoyances though, and didn't detract from my enjoyment of the book.  

Tales of Mystery Unexplained is a fascinating and brilliantly written collection of true stories that are most definitely stranger than fiction.  I thought it would be a 'dip in and out of' kind of book but I simply couldn't put it down.  I am completely hooked now and have looked up many of the cases on google already and have subscribed to Steph Young's podcast of the same name.  I'm sure I'll be regaling my family and friends with some of these stories that I've added to my brain's interesting and unusual facts collection.  It may be a quick read but it's one that I'll be thinking about and discussing for a very long time to come.  

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

My rating:

Buy it from Amazon

Even Stranger (Strange Series Book 2) - Marilyn Messik

With the swinging sixties staggering, shamefaced and flustered, into the slightly staider seventies, life for Stella, isn’t going as smoothly as she’d like. As an ordinary person, who happens to have some extraordinary abilities, it's frustrating to find that something as simple as holding down a job, throws up unexpected hurdles.

She'd be a darn sight better off if she could ditch the conviction she knows best which, together with a  chronic inability to keep her mouth shut and her nose out of other people's business, has led her more than once off the straight and narrow into the dodgy and dangerous.  Plans for a safer future, include setting herself up in business, squashing her over-active conscience and steering clear of risky and unpleasant.

Unfortunately, the best laid plans can lead to the darkest places.

What did I think?

Having read and enjoyed Relatively Strange, the first book in Marilyn Messik's Strange series, I couldn't wait to get stuck into book 2, Even Stranger.  I didn't think it was possible but Even Stranger is Even Better than Relatively Strange.  Reading about Stella as her life progresses through the 1970's is like catching up with an old friend; perhaps there's something strange about these books after all, as I didn't realise how firmly Stella had planted herself into my head.

I love Marilyn Messik's dry humour, which actually starts off as a very wet dunking in a lake for Stella.  It's not laugh out loud funny but it's more of a laughing at the strange events and very quirky family members in Stella's life.  The 70's has turned into a very eventful decade for Stella; not only has she started a new business but her gift is attracting attention from some unsavoury characters.  Stella gets herself into some jaw-dropping scrapes in this instalment of the Strange series that kept my eyes firmly glued to the page.

Not only can Stella fly, but she has the ability to see inside people's heads, which some might see as a gift but to others it's a curse.  As Stella grows older, her ability also grows with her and she can place, and even alter, thoughts in someone's head.  I don't envy Stella at all as I really don't think I would like to be privy to people's thoughts; it's bad enough seeing their dubious actions without actually knowing what they were really thinking.  Although Stella's gift can come in useful at times and when others like her get together, their power is extraordinary.

The Strange series is proving to be quite a unique, thrilling and riveting set of books and I can see myself reading them all over again in the future...or was that thought surreptitiously planted in my head by Stella?  Marilyn Messik has really outdone herself with this outstanding sequel and I'm chomping at the bit to catch up with Stella in book 3.  

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

My rating:

Buy it from Amazon

Relatively Strange - Marilyn Messik

Forced to call on resources she didn't know she possessed and thrust headlong into the violence of a situation for which nothing could have prepared her, Stella’s suddenly face to face with the stark reality of medical experimentation and its horrifying consequences.

But in a world of uncertainties, she’s sure of one thing - this hero stuff really isn't her. Normal, or as near as damn it is what she wants,  and if that means smothering her instincts and adjusting her expectations well so be it. At least she'll know should she slip off the wagon occasionally, it'll be choice not chance, and to suit herself.

Isn't it a fact though, just when you think you've got yourself on track, events can overtake and derail you?

Relatively Strange, the first in the Strange Series introduces Stella; her irreverent sense of humour, the conviction she always knows best and an overdeveloped sense of justice. Throw into the mix a complete  inability to keep her nose out of other people's business and some serious psi abilities, and results are as unpredictably uncomfortable as you might expect.

What did I think?

Relatively Strange is perhaps the strangest book I have ever read; Strange by name and Strange by nature indeed.  Stella is such an amazing character and the way that this book is written from Stella's birth makes you feel like you've known her your whole life.  

Stella is a child of the 1950's and I was shocked to discover that her school days weren't very different from mine in the 1970's.  For pity's sake, for how many years did children suffer the boiled cabbage lunches and frog spawn tapioca and jam pudding?  I felt very nostalgic reading about PE lessons in the school hall with the bars along the walls and the pointless throwing of the coloured bean bags.  Of course, I hated PE and would have much rather been reading a book than doing roly polies on the mat but it did bring back some long forgotten, although not so fond, memories.

I loved Stella's Grandma and her Grandma's sisters.  I don't think it happens so much these days but many of my Dad's aunts used to mouth their words so that young ears couldn't hear.  The only problem was that nobody else could understand what they were saying either unless they were proficient in exaggerated lip reading.  The whole family dynamic and Stella's place in the family was very interesting to read and I loved how a lot of her family were blind to her abilities.  She couldn't possibly have flown up that tree so she must have climbed it!

When Stella's abilities become known, everything gets more sinister with the evil Doctor Dreck experimenting on gifted children.  Someone has to stop him before it's too late and Stella joins forces with a motley crew of gifted people who have a plan to rescue Dreck's latest patient.  It felt a bit like X-Men as Stella is trained for her mission and her fearlessness and bravery is quite astounding.

I bet a lot of people have wished that they could read someone's mind, when you wonder what someone is thinking or how they feel about you.  Well Stella has that gift and it's not all its cracked up to be, that's for sure.  It's actually quite sobering to realise that you really don't want to hear someone else's thoughts.  It's hardly surprising really if you consider how often you have negative thoughts about yourself, but it's always more hurtful hearing it from someone else.  Although there's nothing wrong with being different, it's perhaps good to be normal.

Written with such amazing humour and warmth, Relatively Strange is a very unusual, nostalgic and thought-provoking book.  I am delighted to see that Stella's story continues in Even Stranger and I look forward to picking up with her where we left off.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

My rating:

Buy it from Amazon