Celerity

Celerity is an unusual book, it was an interesting concept - the main character is an average track star - nothing groundbreaking until she discovers her scientist/botanist's father's work - and ingests the serum from a plant he located in the depths of the jungle.
Without giving the plot away, Celerity becomes renowned worldwide as the fast female on the planet. She joins the NFL as the first female player on an all-male team but with her newly acquired wealth, comes a whole host of problems.

Cleverly written and a great unexpected twist at the end.

Celerity is just an unusual book. Celerity is in a plane crash. Not giving anything away. That's how it starts. As her life unfolds through the research of her agent we find out that she was the first female NFL player, a guitarist, and the fastest woman alive. Hmmm. So how did that happen.

Through files from her laptop, her agent reads her journal of how she took her father's research and made herself into what she becomes. It's hard to say more than that, but I will say I really liked the way this was all brought together.

Celerity's father, a botanist, has just passed away and his last wish for her is that she does not follow his studies. She is not sure why, so of course she decides to find out what he was studying in the Darién jungle. Well let me backup a bit. Celerity is now deceased also. She died in a plane crash and her agent is reading her journal entries which explain how she went from Celerity, a student and decent runner to Celerity record breaking runner and NFL player. Her father had discovered something no one had ever discovered before and even though he told Celerity to not follow his research, she does just the opposite. While I enjoyed this book, So much happened SO fast. We are, along with her agent, viewing her journals so time is not exactly relevant, but for me everything happened a tad fast. As a reader you have to keep reminding yourself you are not dealing with the typical time frame and unless Celerity documented the days, a good bit is passed by. Over all this was a good read and I am thankful to NG, the publisher, and the author for allowing me to read this story.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book. The blurb looked interesting so I gave it a shot. But WOW! I really enjoyed it. Read it all in one night! I liked the format of the book. The audio recordings concept worked well. It seems like almost like 2 different stories, the "before' and "after". It's witty and funny and halfway thru takes a darker turn but it all works together. There are parts that seem like a science/history lesson and I really enjoyed that. All in all, a great story line, sympathetic characters, and great read!

Super creative ideas here: and of course, the minute someone says don't do it, there is nothing more urgent to be dome by the other person.
In this case the daughter of a botanist inherits research and the warning was to his daughter, a regular person who liked to run.
Be careful what you wish for, is the old curse. She found what she thought she wanted and with it came a whole bunch of other things she may not have wished for.

It's an entertaining story and an entertaining read.
My favorite, however, is Bolt.

A hard and fast horror novel that takes on an incredible story and makes it its own, this book nearly about hits perfection. There's so much in here, from the social commentary to the camp, and there's such an interesting storyline. The blend of horror and thriller is marvellous, and I loved the development of Celerity as a fully-formed horror villain (is she a villain? I'm still not quite sure). There's so much to love in here, and I really appreciated the weird take that there was on the whole sexual element in here.

I really appreciated that this book delves into the way that fame affects and changes people, and also takes a view of how much money can change a person. I don't know quite what it was, but there's so much in here that I love. The weird Little Shop of Horrors vibe, the extortion bits that read like a spy movie, all of it was great. The only thing that pulled it down from a five star was the ending, which all happened too quickly and just wrapped up all too much too fast. I wish it had just taken its time a little more- but that said, this is still a cracker of a book.

3.75 stars

This book is a quick read and it kept me interested the whole time! I was thinking this was going to be a horror story, but it was more of a psychological thriller which was completely fine with me. The story reminded me of "Little Shop of Horrors" but without the music.

I enjoyed the whitty writing and the constant moving plotline. It was definitely not repetitive. One problem I had with the writing was the transitions between events and when Celerity was envisioning something vs actually doing the action.

Also, I understand that most of the book is Celerity's audio diary, but the quotations were missing whenever someone was talking. Usually you use ' ' instead of regular quotations. This made it difficult to know when someone was talking or not.

The other turn off I had with this book was the awkward and unnecessary female on female rape scene. It was very degrading and I actually reduced my rating due to this. I'm not sure why this was added, then later on, she is a sex crazed maniac. All of this felt forced into the storyline.

Thanks Netgalley and the publisher for the digital copy in exchange for my honest review!