Book Review: Prey by Sarah Davis
Prey
Author: Sarah Davis
Published: October 31, 2023
Paperback: 268 Pages
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Read: December 11-27, 2023
Jessica’s Rating: 4 stars
Book Description:
The fall waterfowl migration has brought something deadly to a small North Dakota town.
Dr. Emily Hayes, a veterinarian and single mom, is the first to submit a sample of mutated Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza—coined H5N1 2.0 or Mad Crow—a highly infectious disease that awakens violent aggression in birds and causes human infection.
Just as the community is about to be overcome by this Hitchcockian nightmare, handsome face from Emily’s past arrives—Dr. Jack Connor. He hopes he can help trace the source of the infection.
As the zoonotic infection spreads, unleashing unimaginable violence and turning birds into lethal creatures, Emily and Jack must overcome their differences and face the secrets that have kept them apart if they are to find a way out of this deadly biological nightmare.
Please be advised with these trigger warnings: Violence, animal death, human death, outbreak/ COVID 19.
Jessica’s Review:
Sarah Davis is a veterinarian, and she writes what she knows! (With some creative licensing). With Prey, Davis takes a crossover of bird flu and swine flu to create mad crow. We do have references to the COVID-19 pandemic happening in the past, and let’s face it: A medical thriller written in present times of course COVID-19 was going to be mentioned. It’s a part of our past, present, and will always be around.
I am a big fan of the 1995 movie Outbreak with Dustin Hoffman, Cuba Gooding Jr and Rene Russo, so I was excited to get a chance to read this novel! And Prey takes off full steam ahead from the beginning! We get very aggressive bird attacks against humans. The description is very vivid, so reader discretion would be advised.
The reader also gets multiple povs with short chapters, so this novel makes for some good and quick reading! For the romance readers, there is a little bit of a second chance romance added in to the mix, so there isn’t just deaths and killer birds!
In case you didn’t know a group of crows is called a murder, and Prey brings on a new meaning to this term! There were a few times as I was reading this book that I would be on the road and would pass a grouping of crows that might or might not fly off, which kind of freaked me out: But how could I not be while reading this book! Especially with one particular attack that happens early on!
I did like the ending, we have an ending but not! With a virus that may always be the case. Prey has a little bit of just about everything to it: Action, terror, horror, killer bird, romance, secrets, hope, and a little bit of supernatural. It should have something for most readers!
I really do like the cover to Prey: It is simple but also not! It achieves what it needs to do and catches my attention! This is one I would definitely pick up in the bookstore to see what it is about.
It was surprising to know that Davis has never seen the Alfred Hitchcock movie The Birds! She mentions that in her author notes. I wonder if that is still the case now?
Many thanks to Sarah Davis for sending me a paperback copy to read and review! I enjoyed it and I hope more people read it!
Blog Blitz: Inside Voices by Sarah Davis
As a part of the blog blitz, today I share my review for Inside Voices by Sarah Davis. I awarded this one 5 stars! It is currently just .99 for Kindle! **There is also an international giveaway going on!**
Book Description:
The mind is a strange beast…extraordinary, unpredictable, protective.
Penny Osborn’s mind is no exception. In High School, Penny witnessed a massacre and lost her father to the same killers. She had seen it unfold before it happened, in a premonition, but could not prevent it.
A college research project at the edge of the Arctic is her chance for a new beginning. Struggling with PTSD, Penny’s therapy includes running, dogs, and guitars. Yet her fresh start is plagued by new premonitions, dark and foreboding, that coincide with a rising number of murders in the community. Her visions are vague, offering little to identify the killer.
When confronted with an orphaned polar bear cub, Penny risks everything to save its life. The deepening mystery of the murdered women, coupled with the exhaustive duties of caring for the small cub, draw her closer to her friend, Noah, and further from her sister.
Fearful for the serial killer’s next target, Penny discovers where her physical abilities can help her.
Will letting go of the past lead to healing? And can she stop the murders?
Inside Voices
Author: Sarah Davis
Published: June 30, 2020
309 Pages
Reviewed By: Jessica
Jessica’s Rating: 5 stars
Dates Read: October 14-27, 2020
Jessica’s Review:
The way Inside Voices begins is a living nightmare of a terrible school shooting and then more. This was a day that changes Penny Osborne’s life forever. This novel shows us what PTSD and learning to deal with loss can do to a person. After the shooting, Penny and the rest of her family move to Alaska for a chance to start over and move on. But will they be able to?
From the book description I knew there was going to be a baby polar bear, and I was anxiously awaiting the cub’s arrival. Once the cub arrived things really got moving for me. Inside Voices is my first novel based out of Alaska and also the first with a polar bear cub and I absolutely loved it! Add in a serial killer mystery, a set of twins with psychic powers, and a bit of romance and you have just about everything you could want!
Davis has been a veterinarian for 20 years and she took what she knows with the character of Eelyn. Her descriptions of Alaska made me feel like I was there, I could picture everything perfectly.
I really liked Penny and she has more abilities than just telepathic communication with her twin sister Lucy. Thrillers are my main genre of choice, and the serial killer subplot is what drew me to this novel, but it is so much more than that! Once the serial killer events are solved there is still much more story that takes place: most of it dealing with Fjord. I adored Fjord, and it makes me thisclose to wanting a polar bear cub. (As long as it stays small and will not eat me….) Fjord became the whole reason for reading this novel for me.
There is an unexpected turn that makes we want to read the novel again. It was something I should have seen coming, but didn’t!
Thank you to Sarah Davis for introducing me to the state of Alaska, Fjord and the whole story of Inside Voices. This is one that I really enjoyed and will stay with me for a while. This one is definitely recommended!
Purchase Link: http://mybook.to/insidevoices
About the Author:
Sarah Davis is many things…wife, mother, veterinarian, writer. An avid reader, she enjoys stories that transport her into new and exciting lands. Having read more books than she could ever count, she has considered writing a novel for ages. It wasn’t until the idea for “Inside Voices” popped into her mind that she finally started pursuing that dream, with much encouragement from her family. She and her incredible husband share their remote home on the prairie with their three extraordinary children and one mostly human weimaraner.
Contact Sarah:
Website
Twitter @SarahDavisAuth1
Instagram:
Penny: @PennyOsborn10
Sarah: @sarahdavisauthor
Facebook:
Personal Page
**INTERNATIONAL GIVEAWAY!!**
Win a $15 Amazon Giftcard!
*Terms and Conditions –Worldwide entries welcome. Please enter using the Rafflecopter box above. The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over. Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data. I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.
