Code Red (Mitch Rapp 22) – Book Review

Hi!

Code Red is the latest book in the Mitch Rapp series which has just been released. Of course we all know the series started with Vince Flynn writing about our favourite hero, before his untimely death led to Kyle Mills taking over the series, with this novel, being his last, he is moving on from the franchise after 9 books. Considering I have been writing reviews for these books for the last 5/6 years, I can’t believe I never noticed that they are in line with the year. This is the 23rd book, and its 2023! (I will not have people call me out on the technicalities of Term Limits). (Check out the others here, Red War, Lethal Agent, Total Power, Enemy at the Gates, Oath of Loyalty) But anyway, I digress. As usual I read this book over about a 13 hour period, starting it at night, reading half of it, going to bed and finishing when I woke up. This time around the book really did feel different, for me, in a bad way, it truly felt like 2/3 different narratives and that the ending of each one brought about the beginning of the next, despite Mills attempts to interweave the narrative in a way that was meant to avoid this from happening!

Oath of Loyalty (Mitch Rapp 21) – Book Review

Hi!

Oath of Loyalty is the 21st book in the Mitch Rapp series, becoming Mills 8th novel, who has had a great run since the death of Vince Flynn. I enjoy this series immensely and regularly find myself re-reading them! I have written reviews for the later books in the series as I only started the series when the American Assassin film was made! If you are interested in those reviews, then you can check them out by clicking the name of the novel, Red War, Lethal Agent, Total Power, Enemy at the Gates. All of the novels are something that I struggle to put down and in general I read them over a couple days (And sometimes just the 1 sitting!). The books are always a solid 7.5/10 at least, over the time that Mills has been writing he has spent a lot of time creating new characters with whom he spends most of the narrative rather than using those created by Vince Flynn. But in this novel there is a change of pace for Mills with a focus on the characters whom Flynn had created over the years and we get to see the way in which they have developed since their inception.

Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six – Book Review

Hi!

Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six by Lisa Unger is an upcoming psychological thriller about 3 couples who take a vacation in a luxury cabin in the Georgian woods, with a severe storm on its way, which is going to shatter the idyllic atmosphere first, the families secrets, or the storm? The book is around 420 pages long and I read it in about 2 days, with me being unable to put down the novel! This is Lisa’s 20th novel, with an upcoming Netflix series starring Jessica Alba based on her novel Confessions on the 7:45, with most of her novels being thriller / suspense novel, it is safe to say that based on the content of this book, I am looking forward to checking out some of her previous iterations. 

Enemy at the Gates (Mitch Rapp 20) – Book Review

Hi!

Enemy at the Gates is the 20th book in the Mitch Rapp series, becoming Mills 7th novel, who has had a great run since the death of Vince Flynn. I enjoy this series immensely and regularly find myself re-reading them! I have written reviews for the later books in the series as I only started the series when the American Assassin film was made! If you are interested in those reviews, then you can check them out by clicking the name of the novel, Red War, Lethal Agent, Total Power. All of the novels are something that I struggle to put down and in general I read them over a couple days (And sometimes just the 1 sitting!). The books are always a solid 7.5/10 at least, over the time that Mills has been writing he has spent a lot of time creating new characters with whom he spends most of the narrative rather than using those created by Vince Flynn. This is why I was pleasantly surprised at some of the creations and inclusions this time around for Rapp!

The Communist Manifesto

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I re-read The Communist Manifesto the other day (Well read the notes I made in the margins a couple years ago!), I have to say the 1st thing I thought of while reading the book was that Communism wasn’t the worst idea in the world, but rather it was terribly executed by everyone involved. With the Soviet Union failing in 1990, but China is continuing to outperform the average nation in the globe despite the communism political system which they are working under. They have grown into a world superpower and are viewed as competition for America in all of the major categories globally, creating the nation as the go to comparison for any developing countries to look too. (But that is of course not to say that everything that they do is correct). In this piece rather than rehash the point of Communism or what people thought of it, I am going to refer to the original point of the idea developed by Marx and Engels, we know as a whole Communism was a failed experiment and lost out to Capitalism in just about every metric that is measurable in public life. Capitalism has its own set of issues, now we will see the basis of Communism according to the original theorists.

How To; Design Your Life

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Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans was a book written in 2017 about how to create the perfect career for you through looking at all aspects of your life and crafting things that you can be happy with as a whole. While in lockdown after seeing a post on LinkedIn talking about how this book was able to turn the life of a former colleague around, I bought it straight away and flew through the book in about 3 days. The only reason it took 3 days was because the book is an interactive tool, just reading it without completing any of the exercises included, then you are wasting your time. The exercises themselves are what provide the reader with the tools to influence their life in a positive way. With that being said, I think we need to take a look at who Burnett and Evans are first, then after proving their qualifications, lets see what type of tools they are asking the reader to utilise in order to design their preferred life.

Total Power – (Mitch Rapp 19) Book Review

Hi!

Total Power is the 19th book in the Mitch Rapp series written originally by Vince Flynn which was then taken over by Kyle Mills, following Flynns’ death. This is the 6th book written by Mills and as a whole he is beginning to imprint his own take on the world of Rapp in order to distinguish himself from Flynn, it is becoming easier to know there is a new writer. I have written reviews for the last 2 books which you can check out by clicking their name is you so want, Red War and Lethal Agent.

I think that out of the last 3, books this one is my least favourite, but all of these 3 have been outstanding additions to the lore of Rapp in their own unique ways and all of the books are great. There is not a lot I can think that this addition did wrong, but it is more a case of all the things the others did better. In saying that, here are the things I really liked about this book;

Midnight Sun – Book Review

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Midnight Sun is the long awaited re-telling of Twilight from the perspective of Edward Cullen rather than that of Isabella Swan. Over the years, Stephenie Meyer has toyed with the idea of releasing a book from Edwards perspective, but after numerous chapters of the project were leaked online years back, she said that was the end of the project. Of course however, this was not the actual case with the book coming out over the past couple of months. From everything that I have seen online the book is exactly what every fan had hoped it would be and then loved the fact that were able to revisit perhaps the most defining book of their teenage years from a new perspective now that they have become older. (I however, had only ever read the last Twilight book, so before I started this, I read the original the previous book. Which probably wasn’t my best idea. Considering this book is at least 50% identical.) But despite this, I actually enjoyed the book and felt it was a worthwhile addition and I can see why the fans had clamoured for it for as long as they did. Previously Meyer had released a re-telling of Twilight by gender swapping all of the roles, but that did not satiate the fans thirst for an Edward centric novel. Even the release of this book has lead to fans hoping for a continuation of this and for New Moon to be in Edwards perspective due to of course the change the story takes, it would for 90% of it be a totally different book. (Hell, I would probably consider reading it!). But of course, gushing about the book here does not help much of a review, so let’s start breaking stuff down;

Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes – Review

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The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is the latest Hunger Games novel from Suzanne Collins and takes place around 65 years before the original trilogy. This novel focuses on the 10th Hunger Games which is also when the 1st mentors were introduced, the book does a great job of giving the audience the tools to understand how the Games themselves really came about and the actions of the few that cemented them in history. The book is split into 3 sections with the Snow family as the protagonists, mainly Coriolanus Snow (Future President Snow from the original trilogy). The book has received mixed reviews with some wondering if the book was required in the 1st place and after that questioning the reasoning behind Collins choice to focus on the dictatorial leader in Snow (Obviously prior to his time as President), due to the fact that we know the type of person he goes on to become. (I personally thought it was a great choice due to the nature of the character himself and the ways in which he was created for this book. But the ages aren’t necessarily consistent) So without any further ado, lets get into it;

Easy Steps to Success (Practical)

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While in quarantine with just about nothing to do, I have looked back over some of the books I have read before. So, for this week, I looked at the book Know yourself like your success depends on it by Michal Stawicki. I’m sure you can already guess what this book is about. (I’ll give you 1 guess if you aren’t sure. Made your guess?, Good, I’m proud of you!) Now, lets get into this, are you interested in knowing yourself a bit better? Keep reading to do so!