Dean Koontz is a MUST READ author for me, so I jumped all over Ashley Bell.
I mean…just check out this awesome cover.
MY REVIEW
I own many, many books by Dean Koontz and I will never pass up the opportunity to read another one. I was super excited to get my hands on Ashley Bell.
Bibi was like a magpie, secreting things she wanted to forget about. She is an optimist and greets each sunrise with the promise of good things. She is a writer and lives life to the fullest. I love Bibi. She plans, or should I attacks, life with a plan, optimism and a step by step process to achieve her goals. I am awed by this character and am so emotionally involved, I can feel myself beginning to roll up the incline of one hell of a rollercoaster ride.
I don’t know if I could handle her adventurous and fun loving parents. 🙂
Her motto could be, Don’t Worry, Be Happy.
Dean Koontz has an ability to describe scenes and characters filled with so much detail, they come to life on the pages. He switches from the past to the present smoothly. My emotions are fully engaged and I am compelled to read on…faster and faster…not wanting to reach the end, but having to know…now…what will happen.
There is astragalomancy, ceromancers, hedomancy, necromancers, but I had definitely never heard of scrabblemancy.
Her fiance, Paxton, is a navy SEAL on a covert mission.
I feel suspense and anticipation for what is to come for Bibi, but even more so for Paxton. I feel Dean has something horrific planned for him and have my fingers crossed that I am wrong, but Paxton has his own horror story to tell.
I was wondering when I would meet Ashley Bell. I sure didn’t see it happening this way.
Terrorist, slaughterers, the worst dregs of mankind.
The supernatural seems to be second nature to Dean Koontz and so far this seems so real I am easily captured and taken so deep I do not want to come to the surface.
One of my favorite stories by Dean Koontz is Breathless and it looks like Ashley Bell is right up there with it.
I grieved and felt like weeping with Bibi. I loved her strong demeanor, her inability to turn away from a challenge because of fear. Knowledge was her answer. Free will…She believed she could shape and mold her life, overcoming…well…anything.
I got kind of comfy thinking I knew what Dean Koontz was going to do and where we were going. Yeah…right. I love when I am set up and he did it in spades.
The pacing is steady, the suspense building. The action is intermittent and explosive. I hold my breath, my throat tight, letting it out in a burst of…relief? Then the slow steady build again, making me feel wrung out, drained. How many times will I have to go through this. Then…Dean Koontz BLOWS MY MIND. I was led like a horse to water and I drank, completely taken in by his subterfuge.
Fanfrickingtastic. I am blown away and loving it. An amazing novel of imagination, belief, hope and love.
I received an ARC of Ashley Bell from Dean Koontz and Netgalley in return for an honest review.
5 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB: THE MUST-READ THRILLER OF THE YEAR: Featuring the most exhilarating heroine in memory and a sophisticated, endlessly ingenious, brilliantly paced narrative through dark territory and deep mystery, this is a new milestone in literary suspense and a major new breakout book from the long acclaimed master.
At twenty-two, Bibi Blair’s doctors tell her that she’s dying. Two days later, she’s impossibly cured. Fierce, funny, dauntless, she becomes obsessed with the idea that she was spared because she is meant to save someone else. Someone named Ashley Bell. This proves to be a dangerous idea. Searching for Ashley Bell, ricocheting through a southern California landscape that proves strange and malevolent in the extreme, Bibi is plunged into a world of crime and conspiracy, following a trail of mysteries that become more sinister and tangled with every twisting turn.
Unprecedented in scope, infinite in heart, Ashley Bell is a magnificent achievement that will capture lovers of dark psychological suspense, literary thrillers, and modern classics of mystery and adventure. Beautifully written, at once lyrical and as fast as a bullet, here is the most irresistible novel of the decade.
ABOUT DEAN KOONTZ
Dean R. Koontz has also published under the names Leigh Nichols, Brian Coffey, David Axton, Owen West, Deanna Dwyer and Aaron Wolfe.
Dean lives in Southern California with his wife, Gerda, their golden retriever, Anna, and the enduring spirit of their golden, Trixie.
- You may see my Giveaways HERE.
- You can see my Reviews HERE.
- If you like what you see, why don’t you follow me?
Look on the right sidebar and let’ talk.- Leave your link in the comments and I will drop by to see what’s shakin’.
- Problem commenting, look for the twitter, facebook…buttons.
- Thanks for visiting fundinmental!
