published: 2019
pages: 377
heard: 2/16-18/2020
book: 14 in 2020


there is always something you can do.

SYNOPSIS
Come on, Bayview, you know you've missed this.

A ton of copycat gossip apps have popped up since Simon died, but in the year since the Bayview four were cleared of his shocking death, no one's been able to fill the gossip void quite like he could. The problem is no one has the facts.

Until now.

This time it's not an app, though—it's a game.
Truth or Dare.

Phoebe's the first target. If you choose not to play, it's a truth. And hers is dark.
Then comes Maeve and she should know better—always choose the dare.

But by the time Knox is about to be tagged, things have gotten dangerous. The dares have become deadly, and if Maeve learned anything from Bronwyn last year, it's that they can't count on the police for help. Or protection.

Simon's gone, but someone's determined to keep his legacy at Bayview High alive. And this time, there's a whole new set of rules.


THOUGHTS
there's this thing in the Hispanic (for sure Mexican cause that's where I've seen it) culture where they grab an egg and rub it all over a person to rid of evil or bad. (in my case, I've seen it done for a house).
....what I'm trying to say is: someone needs to get a huge af egg and rub it all over Bayview because fuuuuuuuuuuuuuh. 
how can shit hit the fan so bad twice in an 18 month period!?

Did there need to be a sequel?
from my POV, nah. 
but it doesn't matter because it's not like i remember what I read originally anyway. 
even after reading my DETAILED spoilers 😑 and others might be more of a fan than i am...but mostly just because there really didn't need to be.
everything was figured out and everyone had gone their own way, it would've been fine if everything had been left alone and everyone moved on living their happy little lives like they already had started to. 

The game goes like this:
you pick a truth or a dare in a 24 hr period.
fail to reply or complete results in an automatic secret reveal.
of all the people that were hit up, 2 ignored and 3 picked dare.
only 1 of the secrets was legit, the other was dumb.
2 dares were stupid and 1 was well,.....well it was what it was.

I liked the book. and the story was cool but there were certain parts where I was over it and I wished this wasn't an almost 400 pg book.
especially when the damn kids had some sort of evidence or not even evidence but another look view into what happened and instead of doing something with it, they decided to hold it to themselves ALL BECAUSE GOD FORBID THEY SHOULD BE BANNED FROM HAVING THEIR PHONES ON THEM AT ALL TIMES WHILE IN SCHOOL!

ugh.

It had its good but it was also eh.

and while I usually loooove when sequels bring back old characters, I wasnt too crazy about it here.
Bronwyn and her bullshit with Yale was annoying; it's what you wanted, don't ruin it.
Bronwyn with Nate and will they, wont they....y'all fucking know you will so cut the annoying shit out.
(maybe I just didn't care for B)...it was just annoying when it came to her. it was too much.
its like it has all this new drama but its also trying to bring in drama from the past back. 
move the fuck on. 

and the end!!!!!! I don't want to say here because it's a bit spoilery but that's really when y'all unite?! after everything that went down and all the shit *YOU* caused! and this is when y'all team up?! 
UGH!
all of me really hopes that while this does end a bit open ended, that it doesn't leak over into a third book! because at that point, everyone should just move out of Bayview and we should just blow up the town so that it never has to exist ever again. 

anyway, it wasn't a bad read, I'm not mad I read it (even though that's literally the vibe that's coming off this). now i see why i walked away from it at B&N even though this was the only book i had gone in for. 

it could've been shorter but it also could've not existed.

but yea.
anyway, jump over for spoilers.
kthxbyye!
published: 2019
pages: 55
heard: 2/23/2020
book: 17 in 2020
*I'm skipping 14 & 15 to post this series together and will come back to those 2 after im done with this series.
the past is never the past. without forgetting, there is no future for me. 

What strange science made Nameless who he is? What catastrophes have been erased from his memories? In the stunning conclusion of this series, the dark past comes flooding back, and Nameless must decide how much he really wants to know.

In Indiana, a murderous psycho has kidnapped his own six-year-old stepson, Jamie, and secreted him away in a subterranean cave. It’s become their bunker. For Nameless, the case is breaking down his defenses, and it may force him to face his memories.

THOUGHTS
huh. 
okay. 

well, here we finally are. 
the end. 

i gotta say with this book i feel like i expected a little bit more as far as Jamie and his whole story. 
i feel like it happened so fast. it felt like his story should have taken a little bit longer to conclude but it happens in the blink of an eye.  
but maybe that was the point...it gets "easier" because Nameless knows what he's doing or because he's starting to remember...?
iduno. 
i just know that that was a liiiiiiitle bit of a letdown. 

you do learn the back story of Nameless and why he is the way he is and its sad but its...iduno. 

this last book felt somewhat rushed. 

as for the end of the series.....well, honestly, i think i have to maybe read this book one more time because i'm like whatever's about it. 
as a whole story (all 6 of them), they were good but maybe not the best of the best. 
i'm kinda on both ends about this. 
i like it and i'm glad i bought the short stories (even though they are free for Unlimited Kindle) but mostly, i'm just waiting for his new book out next month. and i still stand with book #3 being my fave!

i'm glad i heard these. i feel like even if it didn't end super amazingly great, it still overall was a good series. i'm just ready for the next book release! 

jump over for spoilers! 
kthxbyye!
published: 2019
pages: 61
heard: 2/21/2020
book: 17 in 2020
*I'm skipping 14 & 15 to post this series together and will come back to those 2 after im done with this series.

SYNOPSIS
A series of suspicious deaths in a retirement home draws Nameless into the confidence of a terrified former resident—and into the dark heart of a shocking conspiracy. In part five of the Nameless series, it’s time to hunt.

Oakshore Park is Michigan’s most exclusive assisted-living community. Presided over by two killer angels of mercy, it’s also the go-to facility in assisted dying. For a cut, they make impatient heirs happy. Nameless must concoct a scheme just as cunning. But righteous retribution stirs disquiet in the avenger as light starts to shine on the black hole of his past. Should he welcome it or keep running?
THOUGHTS
mk, mk. 
came back a little bit better here. 
this one was interesting to me in the way that everything was set up so that the bad guys could take care of themselves. 

definite pick up after book #4 was a bit of a let down for me. 

it was an interesting choice to write about this wealthy ass dude who is killing elderly people for a fee so that the rich, snotty heirs could get their hands on the money that is owed to them just for simply existing. and while that is the plot for this story, i feel like it focused more on taking the bad guys out and making all of that happen vs spending time on killing more elderly. 

i liked the way Nameless once again made the bad guys do all his "dirty" work for him but how he basically also said fuck it and took care of it himself too. 

and now knowing the twist. per se, i gotta say!, i love how Koontz's minds works!!!

this was another good one! 

jump over for spoilers! 
kthxbyye!

#bookslesreads on IG
also: sorry for any typos below. i had to rewrite that shit twice because blogger was acting a fool. and im over it. but know that i tried. 😊
published: 2019
pages: 50
heard: 2/20/2020
book: 16 in 2020
*I'm skipping 14 & 15 to post this series together and will come back to those 2 after im done with this series. 

Truth. There is no one truth. Everyone has his own truth. It’s all about point of view.


SYNOPSIS
In a town where the corrupt are protected, a bereaved mother seeks retribution for an arsonist’s deadly crimes. Only Nameless can help ease the burden of her grief—and satisfy her rage—in part four of this thrilling series.

After a suspicious house fire, Regina Belmont lost her two children, was left disfigured, and was abandoned by her gutless husband. Brokenhearted and bullied into silence by corrupt officials, Regina’s only recourse for truth and justice is Nameless. There’s something about this case that’s breaking Nameless’s heart as well. But can he bear to remember why?

THOUGHTS
this one was just okay. 
nothing too crazy and not as detailed as all others before it. 
probably my least favorite

we know what he's going in for and i like that he manages to solve it all by "keeping his hands clean" but there wasn't any of the usual pizzazz in this one that the others before have had. 

this one involves fire. 
i feel like A LOT could have been done with that but it was all pretty simple. although, the title is fighting after you've read the story in its entirety. 

and he didn't come back to meet with Regina afterward which i feel like he has done with the others one way or another.
maybe its a sign of something. 

maybe in book book 6 we'll see them all tie up? 
but honestly maybe not because that one has less chapters than the ones before it while the ones before it have had more than the one previous...i duno. 

idunno. 

even if its not highly up there, i still cannot wait to continue this series. 

A sea of lies can’t wash away a single grain of truth. Truth is what it is.

jump over for spoilers! 
kthxbyye!

published: 2019
pages: 61
heard: 2/13/2020
book: 13 in 2020

Denial endures because it soothes. 

SYNOPSIS
A deadly black widow has eliminated three husbands and counting. But Nameless knows her one weakness. To bring truth and its consequences to her crimes, the vigilante must spin a web of his own in part three of the Nameless series.
Lucia—current last name, Rickenbah—has made a fortune by marrying rich men who tend to drop dead. But the superstitious blonde believes in more than money and murder. Nameless’s job is to scare a confession out of Lucia, and as the psychological warfare escalates, even he may be in for a shock.

THOUGHTS
ooooh! this one was good. 
i liked this one! 
its only the third one in the series but this one by far is my fave! 

especially because it has a lot of superstitions going on with the main evil character. and if you believe in them then this one is for youuuu. although, i can only really imagine this making you anxious. 

anyway, i was shocked that this one had a female character since the last two were men but i liked that it was finally a woman. because they can also be evil. and evil she is but man was she fucked up in the head before she decided to be evil and take as she pleased.  

this one was exactly what book one was: detailed but with a whole lot more. 
man did they really fuck her up here. 
i especially love how everything is all completely tied. from the name Nameless uses to talk to Valjean (Lucia's mom) to what that names actually means to Lucia. 
the way that the superstitions get used!
and that end! 
i mean the literal end. 
haha!

i loved everything about this short story. 
cant wait to see what else is in store!  


the past cannot be altered but he can take steps to change the future. 

jump over for spoilers! 
kthxbyye!
published: 2019
pages: 58
heard/read: 2/12/2020
book: 12 in 2020

In fact, Palmer has no friends. no one does. friendship is an illusion, like love and compassion. Palmer's true identity is Death....Death has no illusions. 
SYNOPSIS
A self styled artist is getting away with murder in Death Valley. If all goes well, so will Nameless. In part two of the Nameless series, the relentless avenger is haunted by nightmares of the past and visions of what’s to come.

Palmer Oxenwald’s hunting ground is the Mojave wasteland. His victims are random tourists and hikers. His trophies are cherished photographs of the damage he’s done. His greatest threat is Nameless. Two men with one thing in common: memories of the dead. For a psychopath like Palmer, they’re a clear rush in black and white. For Nameless, they’re visions of violence buried and erased. But for how long? 

THOUGHTS
hmm...when i stop and think about it, this one wasnt as clever-ish as the first but its still good if only because it shows the "sense of humor" that they have for dishing out punishment to those that deserve it. 

while this one wasnt as heavily detailed/planned as the first, its still, well, its very serving of how homeboy goes. i mean, i thought it was pretty clever. it only makes sense since, mountains and trails and shit. 

i have always had a fear of hiking solo. 
i now have an even more profound fear of hiking EVEN with someone else while carrying a loaded weapon. (i used to hike with someone else and well they showed me their true colors so humph!) 
i guess my fear of going into my backyard past sundown is even more justified. 
hell, even my fear of marriage has been further cemented. (LOL JK! but sorta) 

im trying to be very, ahm, elusive (illusive? secret-ish) so that i don't give anything away. 

but i will say this, if i was scared to go back to Yosemite after the Blairwitch project came out, this only proves to me that its better i enjoy it from a far. 
or with a giant group. which i dont have. so from a far it is. 

(can you tell how much of a chicken shit i am! lol) 


lol. either way, another good quick read! 

jump over for spoilers! 
kthxbyye!

published: 2019
pages: 62
heard: 2/12/2020
book: 11 in 2020


Life is a weave of infinite possibilities, though some are more likely than others.  

SYNOPSIS
A bloodthirsty sheriff is terrorizing a small Texas town where justice has been buried with his victims. Until Nameless arrives—a vigilante whose past is a mystery and whose future is written in blood.
Anyone who crosses Sheriff Russell Soakes is dead, missing, or warned. One of them is a single mother trying to protect her children but bracing herself for the worst. Nameless fears the outcome. He’s seen it in his visions. Now it’s time to teach the depraved Soakes a lesson in fear. But in turning predators into prey, will Nameless unearth a few secrets of his own?
THOUGHTS
ahhhh!!!
son of a bitch!
how i LOVE Dean Koontz!

i dont know what deal he struck with Amazon that they get all the short stories but who cares, give me more!

in this one, we follow Nameless. a sorta vigilante per say into Texas where he then takes matter into his own hands....so to speak. 

and these short stories, i am assuming, follow him along kicking ass and taking names (doling out proper punishments to those that deserve it) that will ultimately lead to his truth? idk.... i cant wait to see! 
he doesn't know who he is. his memory only goes back 2 years but something might be cracking because at the end he's getting this vision that he thinks might have something to do with who he used to be. 
and i can't wait to see how it all unfolds! 

since they're 6 short stories i was going to do them all together but then the spoilers are kinda long so i'll do them one by one. 
but i will say this! go read them now! 
at this point right now, i only have one book left in the series so i cant wait to see how it all ends and i definitely recommend these since they are quick thrilling reads! 

I LOVE DEAN KOONTZ!!!!

jump over for spoilers! 
kthxbyye!
published: 2019
pages: 557 (19 hours audio)
heard / read: 2/6-11/2020
book: 10 in 2020


Great events turn on small hinges. 


SYNOPSIS
In the middle of the night, in a house on a quiet street in suburban Minneapolis, intruders silently murder Luke Ellis’s parents and load him into a black SUV. The operation takes less than two minutes. Luke will wake up at The Institute, in a room that looks just like his own, except there’s no window. And outside his door are other doors, behind which are other kids with special talents—telekinesis and telepathy—who got to this place the same way Luke did: Kalisha, Nick, George, Iris, and ten-year-old Avery Dixon. They are all in Front Half. Others, Luke learns, graduated to Back Half, “like the roach motel,” Kalisha says. “You check in, but you don’t check out.”

In this most sinister of institutions, the director, Mrs. Sigsby, and her staff are ruthlessly dedicated to extracting from these children the force of their extranormal gifts. There are no scruples here. If you go along, you get tokens for the vending machines. If you don’t, punishment is brutal. As each new victim disappears to Back Half, Luke becomes more and more desperate to get out and get help. But no one has ever escaped from the Institute.


THOUGHTS

woooooow.
my very first Stephen King book. 
EVER!
and if they could somehow all continue to be like this, well then i'd read more.

now, i really have no idea why i picked this up. i own the shining but its been years and i know that i wont get to it (and i've made my peace with that) so im not sure why i got this one. but if i had to guess, it was 100% because i liked the cover. and because the synopsis did not sound scary at all.

i think the reason i'm scared of King is because i saw Christine when i was young and that scarred me a bit. ...and then you have IT, and Pet Sematary & Cujo and well, i mean, you can see where i'm going with this (besides anywhere near anything that i am trying to say about this book). 

anyway, this read, er listen was......inneresting. 
its almost 600 pages! 
in some parts i was all "hell yea" about it but in others i was just like "why is this sooooo long!?" im glad that i heard it but i was even more glad once it was over. 

i will say this and its probably the most important thing to come out of all this nonsense that im saying / you're probably skimming through right now. 
ya ready? 
by the time i was done with this book, after everything that went down, i couldn't even fathom the beginning of this story. it seemed so far away. a different universe.
this book takes you for a fucking ride. to get to the end and then try to imagine the peaceful beginning really fucks you up. 

Homeboy is just trying to get to New York in a slow way. and then we're at the end and holy shit! 
what. a. difference.  
what a ride! 
not just for Tim but for Luke and everyone in between that was affected. 

how are you really going to run a place like the institute and not "take the necessary precautions" to make sure that shit NEVER hits the fan? i found that so hard to believe because how do you get so cocky about it all, ya know?
i just couldn't believe every single thing that every single character in this book went through to get what we get in the end.

it ends "nicely", with no loose ends, erm so to speak (it's safe to assume that...well, i don't want to spoil it here).  i don't see there being a book 2. and while i would have liked for the kids to end up together in some type of capacity, im just choosing to believe they all do good by each other in the aftermath of the end. 

its a good read. but it is a bit of a read. i started reading this back in October i think or whenever it came out and i got a few pages in but in the end, gave it up and ordered the audiobook through my library app. so either way is good but if you want something to listen to, i definitely recommend the audio. 

so yea.....uhm, i guess i could say more but i dont want to accidentally spoil anything...and i just wanna move on sooo, yea. 

jump over for the most basic spoilers ever! 
kthxbyye!
*edit: after writing out the basic spoilers, i realized that this book might just be even better a second read around. so many details that tie up together and just all the work it took, i think re-reading it while already knowing what happens might make this even better the second time around. or first if you're down with spoilers like i am!

*PS2: BLOGGER took away the spell check. So, mah bad for any misspelled words. I can only reread the same shit over and over. 

Kthxbyyee!
50606451. sy475
published: 2020
pages: 356
read: 2/7-10/2020
book: 9 in 2020
“Sure, maybe love can be simple, but sometimes, it’s a real struggle. People have gone to war over love, Natalie. They’ve spanned oceans. They’ve left their families and their homes behind. They’ve given up their jobs. They’ve put their dreams on hold. Love isn’t simple. That’s a lie. Love is a fight. Love is a plight of the human condition. You either choose to suffer it, to feel it like a cancer inside you, or you give up and you walk away unscathed.”

SYNOPSIS
super long. click here to read! 

THOUGHTS
when i first wrote my thoughts about this book i really liked it but since i take forever to post, and I've had more time to think about it, to me this one was just an okay read. 
i wasn't crazy about it. because while the steam factor is there (barely), not a lot of anything happens. 
they hook up once, then don't and then i forget what happens in between, then they go for it again but she has a secret and then it comes to light and it all just works out. but it just didn't have pizzazz in the long run for me. 

its nice that there's a story where the 2 main characters actually acknowledge how they feel about each other but i wish this one would have been more, for lack of a better word, saucy. 

they are two young, hot af surgeons/doctors/whatever. 
i wish they would have had more fun and maybe in the epilogue what actually happened could have happened then (although the epilogue was pretty funny!) because to me it just seems like it was all neatly taken care of. there wasn't any iduno....im over it. 

i guess i can see why Nat is the way she is thanks to her mom buuuut.....iduno i hated that part a lot too. 

it wasn't a bad read and i did enjoy reading it and it was also pretty funny but now that its been over there was nothing all that special about it to me. 

i guess my other issue with this read is the way Connor is described...the guy on the cover does him no justice lol. kinda reminds me of her other book Make Me Bad.
if you're going to describe the guy as Jason Momoa minus the long hair in the story then give us JM on the cover.

i also disliked how "manly" the men were in this story. who wins when those are your attitudes? 

anyway, jump over for some spoilers! 
kthxbyye!