Two Halves, One Brian

Book Stats

• Format: ebook
• Chapters: 68, plus an epilogue
• Pages: 370
• POV: 1st person, from the main male character’s POV

Book Rating

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐/5

Spice: 🌶️/5

Summary & Review

Artifact was actually my family’s book club choice, as one my brothers is a huge Jeremy Robinson fan. It’s a quick read with short chapters and a nice blend of science fiction, humor, and mystery. I quickly discovered that with Robinson’s humor and writing style, he creates some fantastic quotes. I’ve listed some of my favorites at the bottom of this post. 😂

From the first line, I was intrigued. It starts off with humor and just keeps pulling you in from there. Colton, the main character, is the Sherriff of a small Alaskan town. He enjoys the quiet, remote life. Well, until a camel with at least a dozen eyeballs on one side of its head wanders down the street. Then he’s taken on a journey with his deputies, Tali and Ethan, as well as a few of the locals to the nearby research facility that resides within an old Cold War bunker. It’s here that they discover horrific abuses of power, disturbing uses of bioengineering, and the sting of betrayal.

Some chapters use very scientific explanations and terms, which I of course wouldn’t understand, except Robinson does a pretty good job of dumbing it down enough for the readers to get the gist of it. Some of it is explained in more detail by some of the characters – primarily Ethan because he’s an adorable little nerd.

The mystery and thriller aspects of this story were fun and kept me guessing. When I thought I knew which way the story was going, Robinson proved me wrong and threw in something new.

I really enjoyed the first half of the story immensely. About halfway through, things felt more chaotic and rushed. It wasn’t difficult to follow, per say, but it felt like there was just too much going on. For me, that personally dropped this book from a wonderful 4-star read, to a perfectly good 3-star read. Still a good book, worth checking out, but it won’t go on my list of favorites.

I did give this story 1 chili pepper. This story really isn’t spicy at all and focuses very little on the romance. However, there are a few shared kisses between the main male character and his love interest. If you don’t like spice, don’t let that 1 chili pepper concern you – this was very mild.

Favorite Quotes that I will try to fit in my daily life:

• “Windy enough to pull the dentures from a grandpa’s flaccid face, and cold enough to freeze them before they hit the ground.”
• ”the dildo of consequence rarely arrives lubricated.”
• “it hits Ethan like that wrecking ball grown up Hannah Montana was gyrating on”