Book Review

Blackbirds
Such an awesome cover

Such an awesome cover

Blackbirds By: Chuck Wendig

Plot:

She’s foreseen hundreds of car crashes, heart attacks, strokes, and suicides. But when Miriam hitches a ride with Louis Darling and shakes his hand, she sees that in thirty days Louis will be murdered while he calls her name. Louis will die because he met her, and she will be the next victim. No matter what she does she can’t save Louis. But if she wants to stay alive, she’ll have to try.

Review:

So this book is fairly dark. A few times I wondered what I was doing reading it since I don’t normally like anything this dark. However I stuck it out and it paid off.

The ending was good, made me immediately want to buy the next book in the series. The characters were very well developed, and the plot was complicated enough that I wasn’t able to guess what was going to happen.

Ending wise if he’d gone in a darker direction, like I was afraid he was going to do, I probably would have hated the book. Just to be clear the ending was not rainbows and unicorns, it was still morbid.

4/5

Ahvarra: The Heart of the World

Ahvarra

Ahvarra: The Heart of the World By Brian J. Lang

Plot:

The island of Lorenya is slowly being eaten by a black desert known as the Raught, and its inhabitants—both humans and a transforming race known as Ameleons—need a solution. Such a solution may exist in their own world, at the ruins of a battlefield that lies across the treacherous Raught, while another may exist by passing through Ahvarra, the Heart of the World, that connects Lorenya to a mid 21st century Earth. Can history and technology combine to save one small world?

Review:

The book is well plotted. There are several characters you follow and they all eventually intertwine. There were a couple characters I liked more than others and I didn’t want to leave them, but Lang made it very obvious who you were with so there was never any confusion.

***Spoilers***

There ended up being only one bad guy and in the end he redeemed himself, kind of, which I didn’t expect. I don’t look for bad guys to try to redeem themselves (unless that’s what the book is about) I just assume they’ll eventually become evil.

The whole book was really a giant misunderstanding and the people of Lorenya came off as not being very curious.

I’m interested to see if he will be continuing the series since there’s an even bigger world we never got to see. It would also be interesting to see if the real world makes any kind of impact.

It looks like the file the author uploaded was possibly double spaced so even after I made what changes the kindle allows there was still more spacing on each page than I was use to. It by no means made the book unreadable, it just meant that I turned the page more often than usual. Since I have an older kindle my desire for a newer one is now increased. The formatting does not impact my review, I’ve seen too many traditional and indie published struggle with formatting. It was just something I thought I’d mention.

3.5/5

This is currently running as a Kindle Countdown Deal and is available for $1.99 a steal at that price

A Girl and Her Monster

a girl and her monster

A Girl and Her Monster By: Landon Porter

Plot:

There is a legend in this world of a weapon that only the most wicked of souls seek. It has passed down through the years since before the coming of the gods and each time it’s been found, it granted its master the power to conquer. The power to rule. In the past, it was known by another name, but now it is only known by Rune Breaker.

After decades of dormancy, it just found a new master.

Only this time, things will be different. The new master of the Rune Breaker is an escaped slave-soldier of the Hailene Army of Ascendancy. She never sought the weapon. She does not want to conquer or rule.

Making that choice won’t be easy, for the Rune Breaker is not a sword or bow, but a man; a shapeshifting mage bound to serve whoever finds him as punishment for his ancient crimes. And his sentence has done nothing to reform him. Now, with a villain from before history bound to serve a heroic soul, the question must be answered: Can evil be turned to the cause of good, or is the taint of darkness all corrupting and absolute?

Before they can find out, they must brave a world alien to both of them and the attentions of a foe who stalks them in hopes of gaining access to a power beyond the gods.

Review:

There were several things about this book that I really enjoyed and a couple things I didn’t. Story and characters were great. World building could have been a bit better, but since it use to be a web series I understand the lack.

I don’t like to mention editing in reviews (I have my reasons) but I thought this book could be better if it had some more done. The book wasn’t bad but there were some misspelled words, some sentences that could have been written better, that sort of thing. It didn’t make the book unreadable by any means but it did make me a little sad because I think it could have reached another level with just a bit more work.

A Goodreads review had this to say and I thought it really summed up my feelings on the book:

“Essentially: this story is good enough to make you wish it were better, but promising enough to make you believe it will get there. I am up for the journey.”

I will be buying the next book, totally worth $2.99

3/5

Doe and the Wolf

doe and wolf

Doe and the Wolf By: Eve Langlais

Plot:

What happens when a predator falls for his prey?

Bounty hunting is the perfect job for a maverick wolf; flexible hours, decent pay, the thrill of the chase. But Everett never counted on a doe stopping him in his furry tracks.

Dawn was a prisoner of Mastermind and ended up experimented on, against her wishes. On the run from Furry United Coalition agents, she ends up in the arms—and bed—of a lupine bounty hunter. Instinct tells her to run when she gets a chance because everyone knows not to trust the big, bad wolf, but her heart begs her to stay.

When the result of genetics gone wrong rears its mutated head and threatens both of their lives, will they manage to survive and discover if a wolf deserves a happily ever after?

Review:

I bought the first book in this series because the sample was so ridiculously funny. I wasn’t disappointed.

Doe and the Wolf is the fifth book in the Furry United Coalition and while not as hilarious as the first it still had its fair share of ridiculousness.

Loads of puns and references to big bad wolves. Steamy sex scenes and a giant mutant gecko. What more could you ask for?

4/5

Greek Fire and Other Burning Tales

greek fire

Greek Fire and Other Burning Tales By: Dennis B. Boyer

Plot:

As each one is struck, a new, burning tale is ignited.

Although these seven very-short stories, or works of “flash fiction”, are quick to extinguish, they are still highly incendiary— and quite capable of scorching.

A military commander considers the incredible claims of his enemy. Today is the day they’ve promised to unleash their doomsday weapon and rain fire from the sky.

A firefighter pulls an orphan out of a building consumed by flames. She alone has been spared among the tragic loss of young life. But there is something strange about this emotionally distant girl who refuses to speak…

When his two adult sons find nothing but a pile of ashes upon their elderly father’s favorite recliner, they are forced to consider the strange events of Christmas Eve. One is convinced that this is a rare case of spontaneous human combustion.

Niccolo is an accomplished violinist, but he’ll never attain the fame and glory he seeks until he composes a masterpiece. When he summons a demon to assist him with this endeavor, an agreement is quickly reached. And all Niccolo must do is perform one diabolical task…

These and the other combustible short tales of this collection are as potent as the white-hot flames of the Greek Fire. Scalding stories which will burn themselves into the mind.

Dare for a moment to hold your hand above the flames.

Review:

This is a collection of flash fiction, something I’m aware of but I’ve never actually read any. I normally see it on a blog start one and then think this is too long to read on the computer and stop. I found this for free (it is currently $0.99) on kindle so it was a perfect way to try out flash fiction.

Greek Fire- A bit too much buildup, I think, but still a good story from a different point of view. I figured out what he was doing before the end so it wasn’t as big a surprise as it could have been. If he’d cut down the buildup it probably would have had a bigger impact. 3/5

Here There Be Dragons- I thought this one was too similar to the first one and they probably shouldn’t have been back to back. It was interesting and I didn’t see the twist at the end but again it was too similar to the first one. 2/5

Where There’s Smoke- This one freaked me out and instead of stopping here and going to bed like I planned, I ended up having to read the rest, just to try and get this one out of my mind. I didn’t want nightmares. 4/5

Beholding the Brazen Bull- This one was short but to the point and also a bit creepy. 3/5

The Strange Death of Mr. Ernest Hughes- This one was kind of sad but there was a moral to the story. Very descriptive. 3/5

Upon the Stake- This was another twist ending, didn’t see it coming though. 3/5

An Agreement With Dantalion- Good premise and gave you what you were expecting. 3/5

Most of these had twist endings, where the entire story is build up, getting you to think something else is going on, only to have a surprise at the end. I’m not sure if that’s how all flash fiction is, since I haven’t read much, but it seems like a way to pull someone in for a quick surprise. A couple stories didn’t really follow that set up (Where There’s Smoke and The Strange Death of Mr. Ernest Hughes and to a lesser extent An Agreement With Dantalion) and I think that if they were laid out a bit different the book would have flowed better. Once you read two twist endings in a row you began to see them coming. Overall I thought they were good and I wouldn’t have a problem paying as much as $1.99 for this book. (I’m cheap)

3/5