reviews

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Book Review – Hatching the Phoenix Egg by Joel Horn

Hatching The Phoenix Egg

(Mare Tranquillitatis Series Book 2)

Joel Horn

5 Stars

Joel Horn takes his precocious band of misfit geniuses from ”Lost Coast Rocket” (see my review here) to the next level in this exciting sequel. I always try to stay spoiler free in my reviews but…

A trip to Jupiter, epic science, world ending comet, and a trip home nearly missed while his own government decides to take him out of the sky. Top this off with a deeply held secret finally revealed to his true love (aside from the science of course)…

Life’s never been so precious, or complicated, for Ken O’Brien.

If you enjoyed “Lost Coast Rocket”, you should pick up this sequel right away.

Find it on Amazon.

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Book Review: Banned by Angel Leya (Running Toward Illumia Book 1)

Banned
(Running Toward Illumia 1)
Angel Leya
5 Stars

You need to grab this book now and start a magical journey with the talented Angel Leya.

Astrea is an outcast amongst outcasts, the Banned. Her lack of red hair and freckles, a trait that seems to protect them in the mists of their forest home, make her stand out when all she wants to do is fit in. The forests of her home are lacking in sustenance of late, creating a real fear of famine and starvation. When Astrea spots a unicorn in the forest, she’s thinking it’s her lucky day. But, what if killing such a majestic creature brings about a worse curse then starvation?

Come get your feet wet with this quick trip into the latest realm from a talented writer. I’ll be quickly moving on to the next book in the series.

Banned on Amazon

Angel Leya’s Website

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Book Review – Trading Darkness: A Dark Fairytale by Lisa Hofmann

Trading Darkness : A Dark Fairytale
Lisa Hofmann
5 Stars

My Gentle Readers, Lisa Hofmann delivers on all counts in her novel, “Trading Darkness : A Dark Fairytale”. She gives us love and betrayal, magic of many kinds, and the classic dichotomy of light and darkness.

Our story begins with a realm gripped by witch hunting madness and poor Agnes is caught in the middle. She makes a deal with a demonic power in order to try and save her family, but the demon has designs of its own.

The Blackvale familial lands of Wildenburg have a dark secret, and younger brother Gregory is about to find out just what his family’s prosperity costs. When his older brother refuses to see through his end of the pact with the Century Demon that protects their tiny fiefdom, Gregory faces a difficult decision. He must choose one of his twin daughters to sacrifice to the demon. Lose one, or lose everything as his brother so recently discovered.

Gregory gives up Louisa, but then spends the rest of his life and his sanity trying to discover if she lives. He even goes so far as to make a deal with the Immortal Wishmaster, who hides his own dark past.

Lisa weaves these characters together in such a way that you’ll be deep into the book before you realize it. She draws you into this world and makes you care about each character, even the ones you should dislike. Gregory, the father who had to make the most impossible choice. The Wishmaster, bound to balance his own light and darkness within. The Century Demon, wholly given over to revenge, even has a past that makes her bitterness understandable.

I’m so glad I picked this up and will be keeping my eye out for more from Lisa.

Grab your copy on Amazon now.

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Book Review – Curse Breaker by Melinda Kucsera

Curse Breaker: Enchanted

Melinda Kucsera

4 Stars

Today, my Gentle Readers, I have an excellent fantasy book for you. Melinda Kucsera delivers a fully realized fantasy world with enough background to bring it to life without burying us in a history lesson. There were a few awkward proofing errors, and missing punctuation, but not enough to put me off from finishing this book.

Sarn possesses magic in a world that has spent a long time eradicating magic. Beholden to the Lord of the Mountain and the Rangers, he tries to keep to his promises and protect his son from discovery. There are those who distrust Sarn’s magic, those that just want to use him, but most are unaware of his gift.

When the magical forest surrounding his home decides Sarn needs to see a clearing of horrendous murders, Sarn is forced to face the capricious magic within. Armed with the seemingly moody force within his blood, and a ghost boy who tries to guide him, Sarn must unravel the mystery of the deaths and how it is connected to his own battered past. When the forces seem to be targeting his son as well, Sarn goes on the offensive, defying his Masters instructions at almost every turn.

Can Sarn protect his son, unravel the mystery, and keep his growing magic in check? If you want to know you’re going to have to read the book, because I’m not spoiling it for you.

Curse Breaker:Enchanted on Amazon

Melinda Kucsera’s Website

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Book Review – The Prisoner (Shifting Isles Book 1) by G.R. Lyons

theprisoner
The Prisoner
Shifting Isles Book
G.R. Lyons
5 Stars

 

It made me think, laugh, and cry…

Lyons has woven a magnificent tale of oppression and redemption, loss and love, despair and hope.

Benash is a member of the Hawk forces, and second in command of Sonekha prison. Weighed down by the utter sameness of his routine and duties, Benash dreams of more. His ‘sinful’ desires echoed in the words of one of the men he arrests, “Haven’t you ever just wanted to have a choice?”

As his unswerving loyalty to the Elder’s commands begins to crumble, he takes a fateful trip down the forbidden right fork of the forest trail he walks to the prison each day. This decision would set him down a path he never dreamed of before when his path crossed that of Vorena, a rebel trying to escape the isle of Tanas for a better life on Agoran.

This chance meeting will change the course of both of their lives.

Lyons weaves a seamless world that one finds easy to feel could truly exist, from realistic climate to a religious system as believable as any existing in our own world.

She made me think, laugh, and cry with this book and I highly recommend you pick this book up immediately.

“The Prisoner” on Amazon

My previous interview with this amazing author can be found HERE.

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Book Review – The Physic by E. Burden

physic

The Physic (Children of the Dire Wolf Book 1)
E. Burden
5 Stars

Well my Gentle Readers, this is the hardest decision I have made to date on rating a book I reviewed.  I loved the story, I loved the characters. They were real and pulled at my heartstrings. Sadly it needed another once over as I found some rather jarring proofreading errors that dropped me out of the story the author so delicately wove. This would normally make me bump this down to a 4, or maybe even a 3 if the errors were severe enough. However, I was able to quickly overcome these as I needed to get back into this story and in this day and age, an e-book can be quickly updated. Because of these two reasons, I felt I still had to bump this up to a 5 star review.

Taisho is a werewolf in hiding at a church when all manner of hell breaks loose in her hometown of Maraborg. Unknown to most, the villain is far worse than some criminal or evil mastermind bent on world domination. This is where the author shows great genius in crafting a villain who has human level intelligence, but is truly a force of nature. How does one stop something like this? A being with one sole purpose: to convert the entire world into mindless slaves bent to “his?”/”its?” complete command.

The question becomes, how does one stop a force of nature like this? Taisho learns she is the key to both sides of this war and must fight for not only her life, but the lives of everyone she ever comes to care about in both the human and werewolf worlds.

As the world seems to fall apart at the seams, Taisho fights to maintain control of her destiny, learning her place in the werewolf world. Love, a scarce commodity in her childhood, comes to her in the form of another werewolf. This gives her immeasurable strength of will to continue fighting when all seems lost.

Will Taisho and her allies be able to save the world from the abominations running rampant? Will she be able to reconcile her lineage and hold onto the love she has found in a world gone mad? Find out by taking a giant bite out of this read.

 

The Physic on Amazon

 

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Review – Spy for a Dead Empire by Dan McClure

spyforadeadempire.jpg
Spy for a Dead Empire
(The Adventures of Grant Scotland Book 1)
Dan McClure
5 Stars

I have a real treat for you today Gentle Readers. Dan McClure’s debut novel is a fantasy delight. Adventure, danger, magic, love and betrayal. Oh, and a book that could reshape the world.

Grant Scotland is a an operative for Zyren’s equivalent of the CIA or MI6,  maybe not as smooth as James Bond though. When an old friend comes to town looking for help, Grant springs into action the only way he knows how. Full steam ahead and little regard for his own safety.

Double crossed by a former lover, Grant’s on a mission that just keeps getting murkier as he goes. Throw in an almost honorable gangster with a nearly criminal general and you get a massive tug of war over a magical book with the powers of Gods.

Run headlong with Grant as he tries to rescue his friend’s family and recover the magical tome. This great read will certainly keep you racing along to its conclusion.

Check Out “Spy for a Dead Empire” on Amazon

 

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Book Review – Captured by Catherine Stovall

captured
Captured
The Blood Prophecy Book 1
Catherine Stovall
4 stars

Catherine paints us a very interesting twist on the age old vampire story. Jenda is a young woman who suffers a terrible loss. Her best friend, Soborgne, disappears, leaving behind blood and a mystery. Jenda is shattered, though the chilling words left in her friend’s blood lead her to feel that not is all as it appears. When Matteo, a centuries old vampire, comes looking for her, Jenda is scared to learn the truth of her friend’s disappearance.

This book is a little reminiscent of a big name in this genre, old vampire and high school girl, but Catherine’s take on the tale gives it some unique features. Her heroine, Jenda, is not completely helpless and more than willing to kick a little vampire behind on her own. Her bond with her friend Sobo transcends their trials. All in all this was a nice little diversion from reality. I enjoy a good vampire story.

The bad news is that there are quite a few minor errors that jerked me out of the great pace of the book. I found sentences with the words flipped around, or extra words that don’t quite make sense in the sentence. The story was great and flowed well other than that so I was willing to overlook the minor inconveniences in those sentences.

Get our copy of Captured by Catherine Stovall on Amazon HERE

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Review – Bob by Tegon Maus

TegonMausBob
Bob
By Tegon Maus
Tirgearr Publishing
5 Stars

This makes the third book I have read of Tegon’s and he did not disappoint this time either. Bob is the story of Pete Anderson, newspaper man on the decline, and of course, Bob himself. Bob is definitely a Russian trying to be American. When Peter hits town chasing the story of the century that will net him a ticket back to the top, it is Bob and all of his “cousins” are there to help him along the way. At first Peter doesn’t seem impressed with Bob’s dilapidated car and its uncanny knack for staying put until its passengers are safely buckled in. When Peter clicks the seatbelt for the first time, he has no idea just how fast and how far the story will take him.

Aliens, government conspiracies and a little end of the world panic collide in this delightful romp. Along the way, Peter, Bob, and the “cousins” meet Emma, nailed to a table by her hands of all things. Emma is a beautiful woman with a deliciously naughty talent for enhancing emotions in those around her. She’s also from the future, sent back with many of her kind to try and save as much of the human race as possible from a near extinction level event. These descendants of humanity are not the only races checking out the scene in post-year 2000 Earth.

Peter and Bob race to the rescue when Dr. Thorpe, the man who had Emma nailed to the table in the first place, manages to capture her again. This time Bob brings all the “cousins” to deal with Dr. Thorpe’s corrupt government agents. Somehow the two would be heroes find themselves in the middle of an intergalactic incident.

I really enjoyed the story but I had to ding Tegon for the transition at the end of the book. It fell right in line with the narrative and left me lost for a moment until I reread the passage. I was looking for a chapter break, section break, something. That aside, this was a delightful quick read that I recommend to anyone looking for a funny little trip. If you read this book, I am sure you would be like Bob and say, “I have cousin” who would also love this book. Check it out at the links below.

Amazon:Bob by Tegon Maus

Author Website-Tegon Maus

Publisher Website-Tirgearr Publishing

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Book Review – “The Heroine Next Door” by Zeena Nackerdien

Heroine_Next_Door_cover

The Heroine Next Door
By Zeena Nackerdien
1 Star

Zeena Nackerdien is an accomplished biochemist, researcher, and patient advocate who has devoted her life to helping her home country of South Africa in its war against HIV/Aids as well as TB and other diseases plaguing the country. I applaud those efforts and Ms. Nackerdien.

When I was approached to do a book review of her novel, The Heroine Next Door, I was excited. I thought I would be delving into the rich experiences of this multicultural woman. Born and mostly educated in South Africa during the last years of Apartheid. She comes to the United States with a lofty goal of furthering her knowledge in an effort to help her people. In the pages of her book, I see glimpses of that story and there is a glimmer of the beauty I think that story would hold. However, what I received reads more like a dissertation more suitable for a scientific journal.

The story of Leila Hassan pulled me in at first. There is plenty of detail about her life. Instead of the characters living their lives, it reads like something counting off plot points in rapid fire succession. It reminded me of slides from college science courses meant to throw the bare facts at students for the purpose of examinations. I wanted to share in the experiences of this woman as she came to America and adjusted to Western culture versus her Muslim upbringing and religious roots. I was sadly disappointed with more facts and figures on research into treatments for HIV/AIDS and TB.

I won’t bore you gentle readers with anything more except to say that I saw a potential in the words that Zeena Nackerdien gave us. There is a story, or maybe many stories, to be told by the characters she glosses over. I would certainly read those stories when they appear.