The Glooming

     The Glooming by John Triptych.

     The Glooming is a Post-Apocalyptic/Mythological thriller.

     Sorry this post is a day late.  My son broke his elbow last night when I was in the middle of writing the review.  We spent a couple hours in the instacare center, then the rest of the evening trying to get him comfortable and settled.  I didn't get back to this until today.

     Okay, quick synopsis.  It's the end of the world.  Ancient creatures from folk-lore and myth appear in random places throughout the world.  People go crazy and swarm ancient worshiping spots, and then the area is transformed into a blackout zone where no technology works, sand storms, or clouds obscure vision, and these nightmarish creatures appear and destroy anyone who stands in their way.  The military is helpless against them.

     A runaway, 15 year-old girl named Tara (one of our protagonists), befriends a spirit-guide-like talking dog.  She ran away from an abusive home, and is almost unaware of the apocalypse going on around her.  The dog halfheartedly guides and protects her for the fight ahead.

     I went into this book really excited.  I was thinking, "The Mummy," or something similar because it begins with a mythological professor being recruited to investigate strange creatures who first appeared in Iraq.  The first couple chapters were really shaping up to be a great story.  Then, it took a turn for the worse.  Mr. Triptych has a weird view of how people act.  It's like reading the things people write in the comments section on the internet which they would never say or do in person because even the most snarky person knows that there are some things you just don't say or do in society.  I get what he was trying to do with the many stories of how the apocalypse came to different people, but the whole thing just rubbed me the wrong way.  I can't really put my finger on it.  There's a lot of racism, stereotypes, and open ridicule of religious beliefs.  It's also bloody/gory, with a few accounts of children's deaths, so not for the squeamish.  If you can get past the first eight chapters without being offended, or feeling ostracized, you'll probably enjoy the book a lot more than I did.

     The book jumps around about every chapter until you get halfway through, and then it starts to follow a cohesive story-line.  I've seen this done before; seemingly random events that all tie together at the end, and it can be done very well, but by the time the story hones in on Tara and Gyle's  (the protagonists), you're pretty lost.  It didn't meld well for me.

     This is probably the worst rating I've given an indie book.  I try to like them because I know how hard it can be to go it alone without much feedback, but I sincerely did not like the story-line.  It wasn't cohesive enough, the characters didn't feel real to me.  There could have been a lot more censorship.  I've read books with all of the horrific things Mr. Triptych described, and they didn't bother me as bad.  The only thing I can think is that he needed to introduce us to him more as an author before he started jamming the cruelty of the world down our throats.

     Sadly, I have to give the book.

Starlight (The Dark Elf war: Book 1)

     Starlight by William Stacey.  Finally, a book I really enjoyed.  I haven't reviewed in a long while, at least not any indie author requests, and I have hundreds waiting, so to get back into things I went through my long list of queries and picked one I thought I would like.  I picked well.

     First of all, I want to thank Mr. Stacey for getting back to me so quickly with an e-copy.  I had about 30 books to review, none of which really interested me, and the one I had chosen had a mishap in the formatting about half-way through.  So, late last night I was scrambling to get a book I would enjoy because I'd have to marathon read it today.  I sent out 3 e-mail responses to 3 book review requests which interested me, and Mr. Stacey was the first to respond with an e-copy of his novel.  I'm normally a lot more organized, but I'm still trying to get back into the swing of things.

     Now, on with the review.  Starlight is like Stargate meets R.A. Salvatore's Drizzt Do'Urden.  This was both a wonderful thing, and a terrible thing.  You may not make that connection, but I did, and as a result I found myself routing against the human race in favor of the invading Maelhrandia (the antagonist).  I had to switch my mindset and picture Maelhrandia as one of Drizzt's sisters, or his  mother to get over this.  Mr. Stacey humanizes the dark elf woman, though, so I found myself sympathizing with her more often than not.  The Dark Elf hierarchy is like that from the Drizzt series, and I couldn't help but feel like Maelhrandia was just being used by her mother, like Drizzt was by his.

     The military is playing around with interdimensional  travel(Operation Rubicon), and send a special ops group to a strange new world.  The world is home of the banished Dark Elf race, who attack, capture or kill, all but one of the soldiers (Buck).  In a hasty retreat, the team slips back through the portal, but with their limited understanding of how the gate works, they don't fully close the door.  The queen of the Dark Elves sends her daughter Maelhrandia (a scout-mage) through the gate to see what has become of the "Old World" they were banished from.

     Upon breaking through to our world with her large, wolf-like minions, and her basilisk, Maelhrandia unintentionally awakens a dormant power in a small portion of the human populace.  Less than a dozen people fall into comas from the event, but only three ever wake up:  Cassie (a misfit, orphaned, college drop-out), Elizabeth (Religious nut from a broken family), and Duncan (A nerdy, doof).  The rest are too weak to withstand the change, and die.

     With hellhounds, basilisks, and dark elves on the loose, the combined U.S. and Canadian governments turn to these three young mag-sens (magic sensitive humans) to help them fight off the invasion.  

     Pressure for positive results from the military hierarchy result in the worst circumstances and the elite force finds itself mired deeper and deeper in the dark elf woman's cunning trap.  One elf woman with her pet basilisk tear through the army like paper, and you can't help but wonder what would happen when the matriarch dark elf mother invades with full force.

     The story is well-formed, paced, and intriguing.  I read it in about 12 hours, so it was a bit of a marathon read, but it was one of the most enjoyable indie books I've read since I started this project.  This could easily be picked up by the big five if the author so wished.

     I give it 

The Mistletoe Promise

     The Mistletoe Promise by Richard Paul Evans, is a modern-day Cinderella story with a twist you haven't seen before.

     I've read The Christmas Box, so I figured I would like this one when my sister-in-law gave it to us for Christmas, and I was right.  I sat down and read it in a few hours (after my 12 y/o daughter read it and I was finally able to get my hands on it.  And I figured it would be a great book to review right before Christmas.

     Elise (protagonist) has a sad, pain-riddled past and lives alone with her grief years after her husband left her.  Her horrible past leads her to believe she deserves the misery she wallows in daily.  Sadly, I know many people like this.  Many days I'm like this.  So the story really resonated with me.

     One day, while eating alone in the food court by her office, a handsome lawyer approaches her with a strange idea; he'd noticed her eating alone for the past several weeks, and since he was also alone, and hated facing the holidays with their many social gatherings alone, he proposed that the two should become a couple just for the holidays.  Being a lawyer.  He comes up with a contract that would protect them both, ensure the platonic nature of their relationship, and swear them both to secrecy so as to avoid any embarrassment should the other tell friends and family of the arrangement.

     I know what you're thinking, "Creepy".  At least that's what I thought as I read the first few chapters, but press on readers.  It's Richard Paul Evans not E. L. James.  This is not smut.  It's a really sweet story.

     Elise agrees to the contract figuring that she had nothing else to lose, and the budding romance begins.  At least it appears that way to friends and family.

     Elise's past catches up to her, and strangely enough, so does Nicholas's (the handsome lawyer), and self-inflicted torment turns to atonement when they face the demons of their pasts.

     We live in an imperfect world with imperfect people.  We all mess up from time to time.  Some people's mistakes are horrific in the sight of others, some are incomprehensible, but a penitent soul will afflict itself far more than any justice system.  This is a book about forgiveness.  Mostly, we need to be able to forgive ourselves.

I give The Mistletoe Promise

When Women Were Warriors

     When Women Were Warriors by Catherine M. Wilson is an Epic Adventure novel (not really action adventure, but adventure none-the-less), but it's also a coming of age story for our 16 y/o protagonist, Tamras. The story is told first person, and Mrs. Wilson's voice as an author was a bit jarring at first, for me anyway, but I soon found that it actually set the mood for the time era.  The story is set in the British Isles in the Bronze Age when tribes fought tribes over land and goods.

     I want to start by saying that my two favorite genres are Epic Fantasy, followed closely by Sci-fi.  If I had to pick a 3rd it would be realistic fiction based in the warrior's era (like this book is).  There's something about a story set in the time of the creation of civilization that just appeals to me.  Having said that, I had high expectations going in to this read, so I may be harder on Mrs. Wilson than I should be.

     Okay, so on to the review...

     Tamras is the oldest daughter of the oldest daughter in a line of warriors from her tribe.  Women won their shields as warriors through laurels in battle and war.  She, like her mother, is not large in stature, but given her birthright she is meant to be a warrior.  

     In her society, there is an old legend of a queen who lost a daughter in a hunting accident to a neighboring clan.  The enraged queen, readied for battle, but on the morning her clan was ready to ride out, a young woman rode into their village, unarmed, and offered herself to the queen as a peace offering from the offending clan's queen.  The young woman was the daughter of the neighboring clan's queen.  She came with a message that the queen could take her life to replace the daughter she lost, or take her as her daughter as she saw fit.  The grieving queen took the young woman as her daughter and peace was found between the would-be feuding clans.  And so the tradition of sending the oldest daughter to the neighboring clan as an offering of peace began.

     Tamras's story begins when she is sent to a much larger neighboring clan as part of this tradition.  She hopes to become a warrior and earn her shield, but when she arrives, she finds that they have much larger women as warriors, and she can only be a companion for one of the bigger warriors.  On top of that, she is given a fairly ill-tempered warrior named Maara who doesn't wish the aid of a companion.

     Maara is gravely injured, and the house healer leaves sleeping herbs for Tamra to administer so that Maara can die in peace.  Tamras is angry with Maara, and decides to try to heal her instead so that Maara would owe her her life.  When Maara doesn't die in the night as the healer expected, she laid Maara's life in Tamras's hands, and tells her that she did her no favors because now she would die a long suffering death from infection.  Tamras manages to heal Maara, but is shamed by her motive behind it, and confesses her shame to the ill-tempered woman.  Maara seems to like her candor, and the two begin the journey towards friendship.

     The characters are well developed and the slow plot is pleasant.  The story is great.  It would make a wonderful YA book, but there are two, pretty heavy, lesbian lover scenes.  They weren't pornographically descriptive, though they were racy, so I couldn't recommend the book to youth without a good parental guidance.  It was kind of a shame because it otherwise would have been a book I would have loved to have my 12 y/o daughter read.

     By the end of the book, you can't help but love both Maara and Tamras because Mrs. Wilson really has a way of connecting her audience with the characters through common hopes, dreams, and inner struggles.

     I'm not a huge fan of the lesbian love scenes, but the story was great aside from those, so I give it 

Roman (Saints and Sinners)

      Roman (Saints and Sinners) by Kennedy Streath (Nya Rawlyns)is a YA Romance/Dark Fantasy.  I'm not exactly sure why Mrs. Rawlyns felt she needed a different pen name for this book, except that maybe she wanted to have a different standing for YA than her usual adult work.  And I do mean "Adult Work".  She has a score of Adult Romance novels out, so going into this, I was very wary.  I don't mind Romance, and I don't even mind a sex scene or two in a novel if they aren't too explicit, but when the whole book is smut, I can't turn the page.  The only reason I agreed to review this work was that it was YA, and I hoped that the smut would be toned down for the kiddos.  

     Okay, before I start the review, I need to get a monkey off my back.  I'm part of so many writer's forums, blogs, support groups, and Facebook pages I can't even keep track of most of them.  I always see the question, "Why don't publishers like the omniscient narrative voice?"  Well, I've read a couple of professionally published works where they author, with, I'm sure, the help of editors, made it work.  I've also been reading a lot of indie work from authors who don't have the benefit of all of that professional help.  Omniscient Narrative is very, VERY, hard to do well.  It can be very confusing and jarring to read when not done well.  I'm all but convinced that a single author, no matter how talented, can not accomplish the task alone.  It's the biggest critique I have of this book.  Don't use an omniscient voice.  When I have to go back an read something over again because I don't know who is talking/thinking what, I get put in a surly mood.  Especially when thoughts are italicized without lead-in or lead-out tags annotating who is speaking/thinking.  TJ's thoughts are thrown in in the middle of other character's sentences.  There are better ways to portray thoughts and feelings.

     Okay, on to the review.  Theresa Jane (TJ) just lost her no-good mother, and is forced to move in with her no-good father who abandoned them when she was five.  Typical premise for this type of YA novel.  

     A strange young man named Roman is living with her father.  He's on probation for a crime which has been sealed, and even the police don't seem to want to talk about.  The only advice her brother tells her before shipping off is to stay away from the boy.  You know the old saying, "the best way to get a girl to do something is to tell her not to do it"?  Well, it works.  The mysterious bad boy is an immediate obsession for TJ, even against her own will.  She finds herself drawn to him, wondering about everything about him.  Her dreams are even riddled with the essence of him.  That part is borderline too adult for a YA book, but I digress.  

     It becomes quickly apparent, however, that there is more going on with Roman than just your typical street tough teen.  The lead-ins for this are actually brilliant.  I have to tip my hat to Mrs. Rawlyns for not giving away too much too fast.  The characters are built very carefully, and even with the whinny, poor-picked-on-me, school girl premise, I didn't hate TJ.  She's not completely self-absorbed like most YA protagonists seem to be.  I'm certain the YA audience will love her.

     There are strange things happening in the mine just outside of town.  And the towns people all refer to it as, "the same thing that happened four years ago".  Four years ago is about the time Roman showed up.  There is also a dark contract involved...

     The story is actually quite good.  The characters are well developed.  I cringed a little whenever things heated up between Roman and TJ, just because of the other books Mrs. Rawlyns has written, and she did a pretty good job staving off the inevitable, but, right towards the end, she gave in to her writing habits.  A couple of sixteen year-olds going at it... It was kind of a shame because the rest of the book was rather good.  I don't think teens need more sex and passion.  That one little slip, in my opinion, made the book unsuitable for YA.  Even though it wasn't too explicit.  So, that's my only other criticism; write for kids, or write for adults.  Don't put too many adult ideas into kids' minds who can barely contain their hormones as it is.

     I would have given this book 4-5 stars if not for the end.  As it stands  I give it

20 powerful steps to a healthier life

     Dr. Schulze's 20 Powerful Steps to a Healthier Life.  This is not a requested review, rather a book a loved one wanted me to read to help me out.

     As most of my readers will know, I'm sick.  I have a serious illness which prevents me from even writing at times.  It has a cascade of secondary illnesses which have been of no end of pain and suffering for me.  As a result, everyone I love wants to help me.  Doctors mostly just shrug and give me stuff for the symptoms because my disease is too rare for any real research to be done on it, so, naturally, I've looked for ways to help myself.  I've studied a lot of herbal and homeopathic cures and remedies, and have had some small success by moving to a healthier eating life-style.  I don't preach about what I do because I'm still figuring it out myself.  I've read several books on the subject, and I've followed countless diets, supplement, and herbal plans to get better.  20 years later, I usually just try new stuff to make a loved one feel like they are helping me.  Some improve small aspects of my life, some do nothing, and some hurt me.  I've learned a little with each new passing "miracle cure".  

     Personally, I believe that if you educate yourself on nutrients, eat as healthy as possible, find out what helps and hurts you, and don't obsess over nutrition (yes, obsessing over nutrition is bad.  Don't dedicate your life to just eating healthy.  If you do, all the extra years you bought by good living will have been spent trying to eat right.) you'll be alright.  I don't eat animal products because I have blood issues.  I'm not a vegan to save the poor animals.  I love meat, and when I cheat on my diet, there's nothing I like more than juicy ribs, but meat thickens my blood further and makes me sick so I rarely eat it.  Does that mean that eating meat is bad for everyone?  I don't believe so.  I do believe we (in America and any other 1st world country) eat too much of it, and the process for producing such large quantities of meat by the cattle ranchers and finishing farms has introduced a lot of bad things into the meat products they sell, but I think each person needs to self-educate about the matter and make a personal decision instead of a blanket-all answer of no meat.  We are, after all, omnivores, which means we were created by God (or nature, evolution, or whatever you believe in) to be able to eat both plants and animals.  We were also blessed with bright minds to discern how to use our bodies.  

     Sadly, addiction, lack of education, availability of food items, money, and (unfortunately) political interests prevent the masses from knowing just what is best to eat.  The food pyramid, and the old four food groups, is not 100% accurate, but slightly motivated by political obligations, and popularity.  I think the biggest problem is when we don't fully comprehend the damage we are doing to ourselves. 

     And that is where this book comes in.

     When we get sick, we are desperate to get better.  You don't realize how much your health can affect your life until it goes South.  There are literally millions upon millions of miracle cures out there; diets, herbs, colon cleanses, aroma therapy, acupuncture, teas, exercise routines, creams, pills, and even modern medicines.  But, sadly, most are bull.  These "doctors" prey on the sick and desperate with false hope and empty promises.

     The truth of the matter lies in the fact that our bodies get sick, old, worn out, injured, and eventually die.  Can you stave off these things?  Yes, to a point, anyway.  Every cell in your body has a distinctive chemical makeup.  they need certain vitamins and minerals to function properly.  Some can make due without, some can't.  If you feed your body all it needs, it will be healthier.  Just like if you regularly maintain your car with oil and other fluid changes, and use premium gas, it will last longer and run better.  However, If you eat a lot of garbage with little nutrition, the body is full, and still doesn't have what the cells need to function, so it tries to make due.  That can lead to things like cancer and other diseases.  Just as a car would break down if you never changed the oil, or if you used old gas.  A lot of problems can be prevented by proper maintenance (both with the body, and the car).  But some things can't.  It doesn't matter how often you changed the oil in your car if you get in a car wreck, nor would it matter if there was a defective part, or if a part naturally wears out from use.  If you injure your body to a certain extent, or if it gets old and worn out, or sick, there is only so much you can do.  Our bodies are miraculous, beyond our understanding, and where sometimes people have had incredible recoveries from things they shouldn't have recovered from.  However, that isn't the norm.  Authors of books like this want you to believe otherwise.

     I don't want to come across as an absolute skeptic.  There is power in good nutrition, perhaps equal to, or even greater than, modern medicine.  After all, most meds only treat symptoms.  Only your body can heal itself.  The stuff doctors do is preventative and emergency measures.  The body, in the end, is responsible for actually fixing any problem within itself (with the exception of surgeries).  So, yes, you can heal a lot of things with diet and supplements.  I have experienced it with my own disease.  I'd be dead by now if it weren't for the nutritional changes I've made in my life.  The problem lies in the fact that Dr. Schulze, along with thousands of other "doctors" trying to sell books and supplements, over-sell the power of these treatments.

     As a sick person, an educated sick person who is well-versed in nutritional therapy and alternative medicines, I took tremendous offense to this book.  Dr. Schulze is a crackpot, if ever I've seen one.  

     The first 60 pages of the book are bull (I don't swear, but feel free to insert an expletive phrase here).  He tells fish stories of growing back a 4th degree burned hand, regrowing a malformed heart, and how his blown out knee magically re-attached/grew tendons and ligaments through diet alone...  

One of two things happened here: One, the injuries were embellished, or two, they didn't happen at all.  Frankly, it's insulting to expect his audience to believe that a tendon, detached from a bone and pulled away by the muscle, could, somehow, get pulled back into place (against the natural tension of the muscle tissue, mind you) and re-attach to the bone before healing to proper functionality.  If it was torn, but still attached, it would be a stretch but I could see the body healing itself from that. 

     If the outlandish stories aren't enough, you get a heavy dose of Dr. Schulze's obnoxious personality in these opening pages, as well.  The personality doesn't get any better as the book continues, but the material does... sort of.

     Dr. Shultze, like any good snake oil salesman, goes on to talk about the miracles and great success his plan has had with thousands upon thousands of people.  Then he gets lost talking about irrelevant psychobabble to confuse anyone still reading before he goes on to explain his simple plan.

     The plan is not new, by the way.  Spoiler alert:  Basically, eat fruits and vegetables, or better yet, juice them, and drink lots of water.  He talks briefly about throwing out the T.V., exercising/stretching, etc. etc. but he is mostly just trying to sell cleanses and supplements.  He does give some interesting facts and cites studies done by actual doctors and researchers.  He gives a few good examples of foods that are good for different body parts, but in general, he's fairly vague about what to eat.  

     The most annoying thing, though, is that he shamelessly advertises his rather expensive supplements fairly heavily throughout the second half of the book.  He's big on cleansing, but those cleanses are all about his magic cleansing pills, which is ironic because he rants and raves against the herbal doctors for that very thing... but his is better, of course.

     If you take out the fictitious first 60 pages, cut out the lengthy advertisements for his supplements and cleansers, there's about 20-30 pages of information in this 251 page book.

     I know I'm being ruthless, but there are so many good nutritional therapist out there who can really help you if you're sick, and if you start with this idiot first, you may never get to their genuine work.  

     If you want real information, the best nutritional doctor I have come across is Dr. Joel Fuhrman. That link takes you to his amazon page where he has several good, informative books, along with cook books which will actually guide you on what to eat and why.  Unlike Dr. Schulze, Dr. Fuhrman's books are reasonably priced, and there is a wealth of actual information in the books.  And he's not trying to make a living selling you supplements.  There are others good Doctors out there, too.  The first one to help me down my path of self-help nutritional therapy is Dr. Hugo Rodier.  

     As for 20 Powerful Steps to a Healthier Life, it's a book you buy to read advertisements to buy supplements and cleansing products for your body.  Dr. Schulze isn't even an adept writer.  There are a couple of good tips in the book, so I can't give it 0 stars. 

     In all, I give the book

Blue Hydrangeas: an Alzheimer's Love Story

     Blue Hydrangeas: An Alzheimer's Love Story by Marianne Sciucco is a real love story.  Not a true love story, but a real one.  

     I think love is the subject most written about in all of history.  Listen to the radio - almost all the songs you hear will be about love.  The greatest plays ever written are about love.  Countless movies and books have been written on the subject.  Almost every fairy tale ever told is about love.  It's the thing we most crave.  People need food, water, and shelter to survive.  They need love to live.  That is why it is a universally sought after... thing.  The only problem with the plays, music, books, movies, etc. is that they only seem to catch the first glimpse of love.  Most would call it infatuation, puppy love, or even lust, in most cases.  My favorite appellation for it is twitterpated.  What most people don't realize is that those rushed feelings of deep emotion are only the tip of the iceberg... the door to love, if you will.  Real love starts where most relationships leave off, after that initial rush goes away.  After the first big fight, or the big wedge of different lives trying to mesh together.  After the excitement of finding out everything about the person you are so enthralled with.  That's when true love begins to grow; when you have to work for it.  You have to begin sacrificing, not just superficially, but truly sacrificing because that person is worth way so much more than whatever else is going on in your life.  That is what Blue Hydrangeas is about. 

     Before I get into the review, I just wanted to say what a truly wonderful portrayal of life with someone with Alzheimer's Mrs. Sciucco painted for the reader.  My grandfather had Alzheimer's disease.  I was little, and don't remember much, but I do remember his confusion.  We'd be at Grandma and Grandpa's house, watching T.V., and suddenly he'd yell at us for being in his house.  

     "What are you kids doing in my house!"

     "Grandpa, we're your grandkids,"we'd say.

     "Who's kids are you," he'd ask.

     "We're Paul's kids."

     "That's right," He'd say.  Then he'd go back to watching T.V. like nothing had happened, only to repeat the conversation several minutes later.  

     I remember thinking that he was being silly sometimes.  Sometimes he'd scare us.  Sometimes he'd worry us, but mostly he was just Grandpa, and we knew he was sick.  Unlike in this great novel, my Grandmother was not able to keep Grandpa at home. She got breast cancer, and couldn't take care of him for the last months of his life.  When he died, the nurses said he'd been calling out her name all through the night.  I remember thinking how scared he must have been, knowing how confused he was most of the time, at not having his beloved wife there to comfort him as his spirit left him.

     I share this because Mrs. Sciucco paints a perfect picture of what it is really like to live with such a person.  The experiences Jack and Sara and their family go through are all too familiar to me.  I read her bio and found out that she was a nurse, and worked with Alzheimer's patients, so it all makes sense.  Thank you, Mrs. Sciucco for bringing light to this difficult disease.  It's more than just being forgetful.  It really affects the lives of everyone around the patient.

    Okay, on to the review.  Sara has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. She's scared of losing everything she's worked her whole life to build -  family, friends, their home - so she makes Jack (her husband) promise that he won't allow her to be put into a home.  Jack vows that he will keep them together no matter what.

     As is, sadly, the case in most such instances, everyone wants to intervene on their behalf.  Jack finds that to keep his vow, he has to battle his confused wife and her constantly failing state of mind, his own children, doctors, nurses, and case workers.  Everyone seems to "know" what is best for the old couple.  They are all kind people, and are trying to do what is best for the couple, but Jack can't bear to be away from his one true love.

     With his failing heart, he finally gives in to the pressure of all of those around him, but when the day comes for him to take his dear Sara to the care facility, she has a lucid day.  He can't bear to break his promise to her while she's aware of what he's doing.  Instead, he decides to take her around the cape, where they live, and try to rekindle memories, and their life-long love.

     This story is warming to the heart, and though it's not the twitterpated kind of love you see so prevalent in the world today, it's a story of true love.

     I know my mom would especially love this book, and I know she's reading this blog so, Mom, I'd get it for you and Doug to read.  For the rest of my readers, It's a great book, click the link at the beginning of this post to get it on amazon.

     I give this novel 

Night Watch

     Night Watch by Linda Hall.  (Click her name to go to her amazon author's page, she's got an impressive number of books under her belt.)

     Okay, I have to start by telling you what happened when I read this book.  I get a few requests a day to review books - I'm booked until the middle of next year - so it can be confusing as to which book belongs to which author.  I wrote Mrs. Hall that I was going to be reading her book this last week, and almost immediately afterward another Linda requested that I review one of her books.  When I started reading Night Watch, I was thinking it was the book the other Linda asked me to read.  The other Linda is a young girl, barely 20, and the book she wanted me to review was her first novel.  So while I was reading Night Watch I kept thinking, "Man! This girl is incredible.  She writes way better than me; like a seasoned author."  When I finished the book, and was gathering the links to author's pages and whatnot, I saw the profile picture of Linda Hall and suddenly everything made sense.  She's an incredibly talented, and well-practiced, author.  Mrs. Hall's writing style is refined and sleek.  I enjoyed the rich content of the novel.

     Quickly, before I get to the synopsis, I wanted to say that it is painfully obvious that Mrs. Hall loves writing.  You can tell by her well developed characters, rich plot, slow leads to a great climax, and an ending which leaves you satisfied, even though there is a heavy lead-in to a sequel.  A lot of times authors, even well published authors, lead a sequel with such a heavy-handed cliffhanger that you feel more frustrated than curious to buy the next book. (I'm even guilty of this.)  Mrs. Hall's work is well thought out.  Everything is smooth.  There is no rush to get from one point to the next.  She is a story teller telling a story she enjoys to tell.  Her characters are consistent and human.  Her plot has no holes.  Her pace is perfect (fast in the exciting parts, and slow where explanation is needed).  She writes well because she's well practiced, and she loves it.  I've been reading a lot of Indie work lately, and it was surprisingly refreshing to read something so well written that I wouldn't dare to criticize it.  It's frustrating to read a story which is supposed to be based in reality, but you just know that the character couldn't possibly do what was being portrayed.  Mrs. Hall obeys the laws of physics, and human capabilities and faults all while creating suspense.  It sounds easy, but so much of the work I've been reviewing has fallen oh so short in this task.  The characters act as people would act.  There aren't any random uncharacteristic acts thrown in just to make the plot make sense.  I guess that I've been reading so much amateur work lately that I've begun to associate Indie writers with amateur writers.  Mrs. Hall is not an amateur.  So, I guess what I'm trying to say is, thank you for the break from criticizing, Mrs. Hall.

     Okay, on to the synopsis...

     Em Ridge, the protagonist, is a new sea captain.  Her first voyage, after receiving her captain's license, is to take a yacht from Maine to the Bahamas.  Two of her trusted sailing friends accompany her on the voyage, along with the yacht owner's daughter, Kricket Patterson, and a man named Rob who is trying to build a sailing resume.  

     The story starts as Em is awoken from a restless sleep to find that Kricket has gone missing.  In a yacht, that can mean only one thing... man overboard.  After a frantic search, and fret over her freshly minted license, Em calls in the Mayday.  Em had recently lost her husband in a kayaking incident.  The pain was too fresh.  She knew the pain Mr. Patterson was feeling at losing his daughter.  She knew that there would be no excuse, ultimately Em was responsible for everyone on the yacht, and she had lost a passenger.  Mr. Patterson demanded that Em find his daughter.  The crew searches the seas and finds a bloated body which is hardly recognizable.  

     Upon returning to shore with the body, Em learns that the woman she thought was Kricket was an impostor.  Someone with Kricket's passport was posing as her to ride on Em's boat... but why?  

     Right after Em is interrogated, the state medical examiner sees her, and asks if he can take her out to lunch to discuss some new findings he'd come across about her own husband's suspicious death.  The incident is beyond bizarre.  The young boys responsible for his death were being protected by the community and their church.  Everybody sung their good behavior.  In the end, the case was thrown out as a simple accident, and the names of the minors driving the boat which ran down Em's husband's kayak were withheld. 

     The new state medical examiner was dissatisfied over the investigation, and did some investigating of his own.  He couldn't find any of the boys involved.  The houses they were supposed to have lived in were occupied by other people.  One house was occupied by an old couple who had lived in the house for years and had never had a young man live with them.  Stranger still, the church which supported the boys didn't exist.  The boat involved in the accident had a fire and was destroyed a few months after the case was closed.  The whole incident wreaked of cover-up. Em, of course, was shocked.

     From here, the thick, twisting plot begins.  The two murders may be linked.  Everyone is a suspect.  Em has family-like neighbors with whom she always confides.  I suspected them.  The detective in charge of the case is suspicious.  The crew members in the opening voyage are suspicious.  I even thought that Mr. Patterson might be involved.  

     The most enjoyable part of the book, however, isn't the twists and turns, the constant wondering, second guessing, or suspenseful mystery, it's the character-based focus.  Em is real.  You can feel her frustration.  You sense her hurt and feelings of betrayal.  She is conflicted.  She morns the loss of her husband, and wants to case resolved.  She fights for her own life and wonders why she is even involved in all of this.  The depth of emotion is rich and real.  There is even a slight romantic side of the novel, but it's not the "soap opera" ridiculous romance.  Em is conflicted because she's still morning her husband, and yet she is still alive and still feels.  

     Mrs. Hall has a great gift for pulling the reader into the story.  The suspense and mystery does keep you hooked, but I was more drawn by the realism of the characters.  Em is messy, emotional, but strong.  Ben, the detective, is not the super cop most novels portray.  There are no stereotypical behaviors.  The friendship Em has with her neighbors is endearing.  The whole human-connection is what made this story for me.  I loved it.

     I give this novel

     

Havoc

     Havoc by Steven F. Freeman is an Action Spy-type/Conspiracy novel set mostly in Italy.

     The one issue I have with this genre is the superman in the real world hero.  It's nothing against Mr. Freeman, but just the genre in general.  A secret agent, or in this case an disabled war vet, is fighting against an entire establishment to uncover a horrible truth.  The settings for these types of novels are supposed to be based in the real world, yet the hero is always a one-shot-kill kind of guy with insurmountable other talents.  I know that it creates a level of excitement for the story, and the hero has to stand out -because hey he's the hero- but I think it would be interesting if one of these types of novels had a more realistic, flawed hero.  

     I do appreciate Mr. Freeman's effort to give us something different by giving the hero a war wound which limits his prowess, but the limitations seem to disappear during the action sequences and then suddenly come back after.  I can appreciate this because I have a disability myself, and often times in the heat of the moment you can ignore the pain only to have it return with a vengeance. I hate to give a criticism without at least some sort of advice to solve the issue, but this genre is not my forte, so I don't know how I would correct it if I were him.  However, it did bother me a few times during the read.  Maybe make him miss a few more shots, or have a bad guy not so mortally wounded (and I don't mean when the hero meant to hit him in the leg).  Give them a gut shot, where they bleed out a little slower.  Make the hero limp more, or have the disabled leg interfere more with his ability to maneuver.  Own the injury.  For most disabled people their disability is a huge consumer of their physical efforts, even if they won't admit it out-loud.  Their limitations become part of their everyday life, so they don't feel like limitations, and the person can rise above their disability.  However, the disability still remains.  They just find a way to work around it.  You could work that into the story.  He can put down the pain most of the time, but it incapacitates him sometimes.  He walks with more than just a limp after physical exertion.  The story starts out great in recognizing the limitation, but it seems to have been forgotten as the story wears on.  I don't mean to base the whole story around it, but the limitation is fairly inconsistent. 

     Okay, so on to the synopsis:

     Imagine a memory chip which stored information on a sub-atomic level, using the actual electrons of atoms.  A chip the size of modern microchips would be able to hold almost limitless information.  Such storage capacity would be worth lives.  In Havoc, it is worth many lives.  Companies around the world are aware of the possibility to create such technology, and they are racing to solve the puzzle and be the first to capitalize on the idea.  Vidulum seems to have made the largest break in solving the puzzle, and a corporate theft soon follows.  Alton Blackwell, the protagonist, gets caught up in the aftermath.

     Alton is a war veteran with a disabling wound to his leg.  He was an information officer (Cryptologist) in the military, and has since found a use for his IT skills in the private sector.  He takes his girlfriend, Mallory Wilson, on a surprise vacation to Italy.  The two have a long history together which dates back to his military days, though it wasn't romantic until more recently.  Mallory still works for the government as an agent in the FBI.

     On the third day of their vacation, while eating at a restaurant another couple had referred them to, the couple hear a gunshot and rush to see where it came from.  They arrive just in time to see a man standing over the victim in the dark.  The man runs, and Alton sees two other assailants in the dimly lit Colosseum.  Instead of trying to pursue the assailants he chooses to help the victim.  The man turns out to be the man who referred them to the restaurant to begin with.

     The police find the situation fishy, and question Alton and Mallory at length, but Mallory's service in the FBI remove them from the list of suspects.  However, the couple is asked to help in the investigation because they were the only ones to see the assailants (even though the dark prevented them from being able to give a description).  

     When the police are done with them, the couple tries to move on with their vacation.  However, they find themselves being pulled back into the ever-escalating investigation.  Mafia, assassins, foreign and domestic agents, corporate spies, and just about anyone else you could imagine are fighting each other to get at the information the man at the Colosseum was murdered for.  Alton and Mallory are caught in the middle, and must fight their way out the only way that will keep them both alive, by solving the case.  

     Betrayal, action, love, mystery, plots, and conspiracy... The story was excellent, if a bit long.  I enjoyed the multilayered plots and competitions to get at the microchip technology.  However, I hate to say it, but it was fairly predictable.  I guess this type of story has been done too many times. 

     I really liked that Mr. Freeman didn't just end the story with the culmination of the plots about the microchip technology coming to an end.  After all, Alton and Mallory had a life before they were involved with the mess, and it was good to see them get back to it afterward.  Most of these types of story just leave you hanging with the couple embracing as the fires burn in the background.

     In all, I would give the story

All Purpose Exorcism: Ignatius's Territory

     All Purpose Exorcism: Ignatius's Territory by Ashlei Hawley is a perfect example of why I love long books.  If you start this book, give it time.  The world Mrs. Hawley creates is quite unique.  This post-apocalyptic Fantasy Fiction will delight you if you allow yourself to be immersed in this surprisingly well-constructed world where the "other side" is threatening to take over the living world.

     Before I do the summary, I want to get the biggest critique out of the way.  If Mrs. Hawley reads this: Kill about 98% of your hyphens!  They are extremely distracting to the story, and used far too often.  They break up the flow, and I found myself needing to re-read several parts just to understand what in the world was actually happening.  Start a new sentence.  Use more commas.  Even parentheses would be better than the hyphens.  The ones used to join words were okay, but the conjoining of thoughts by use of hyphens is a rare beast.  It shouldn't happen more than a couple of times in a novel.

     Okay, I'll get off my soapbox now.

     Cameron, our young heroine, is a diminutive, but powerful, exorcist.  Some hundred years ago, a cataclysm all but destroyed the veil between the living world and the world of the dead.  Ghosts, wraiths, spirits, and all manner of apparitions become common-place.  The human race is diminished by these other-worldly beings to the point of extinction.  In balance to this horrible destruction, exorcists born with innate powers over the dead, come into existence.  Cameron is the most powerful among them, and at only 4'10"! (I absolutely love that little quirk in the story.  My oldest sister is 5' and a police officer.  I couldn't help but picture her as Cam through the whole story.  She's a little spit-fire; always trying to prove that she is as tough as the male officers, and she pushes herself harder than anyone I know to prove her mettle.  It made the young exorcist all the more endearing to me.)

     All of the myths, legends, or scary stories you've ever heard turn out to be real, and with the torn veil, everyone is able to see these horrible entities.  Vampires see that their food supply is being destroyed, so they become the ruling powers of the world to keep the straggly few humans left alive.  

     Now, I know what you're thinking, "Ugh, another vampire book!"  Whoa there reader.  This is not something you've read before.  There are no glittery vampires, nor are there monsters from Bram Stoker's Dracula.  (except an occasional feral vampire which is little more than a deranged animal.)  Instead, the vampires in Mrs. Hawley's novel are surprisingly human.  The cops act like cops.  It gives the story a completely different feel than any I've read.  Do not be turned off by the vampires.  I'm sure we've all had about all the vampires we could take recently, but this story is oh so different.

     So, the vampires set up the All Purpose Exorcism or A.P.E. (I had to laugh at that) organization to fight the invading dark forces.  Right from the start you get into the flow of how the exorcists (exors) operate.  Towns are set up, and each house has a psychokinetic barrier erected around around it to protect the residence from the spirits at night.  Nobody goes out at night except the exors and vampires because the spirits rule the night.  However, the spirits sometimes attach themselves to the living to feed off their souls, or there are good spirits who are simply lost and need help to cross over, so the exors are called in to help the good or banish the bad.

     There is a religious group which embraces the spirits because they believe that we are all meant for darkness.  Their leader, Skylark, is a powerful spirit which bounces from body to body, leading the zealous group.  Our story starts with one of this groups members who contacts the A.P.E. for help (something which is simply not done).

     Cam meets with a woman from the group, but doesn't get details of the problem because she feels she is being watched and is in danger.  Sadly, she was right because they find her body not long after.  Something is going on beyond the usual problems of living among the spirits of the dead.

     As Cam's nights wear on, things get stranger and stranger.  Things which should not be happening, are happening all at once.  The world of the dead seems to be restless. Cam's overseers know what is happening, and send a vampire to protect her in the night; something with which she is very displeased.

     The world is facing another catastrophe, and Cam may be the only one with the power to stop it.

     This is not a book I would normally pick up off of the shelf.  Most paranormal books are so hokey that I can't stand to read them.  I'm so glad I got to read this book, though.  I would have missed out had I not given it a chance.  The paranormal activity is written as matter-of-factly as possible, and you can't help but just accept it as part of the world Mrs. Hawley creates.  As I said in the beginning, the length of the novel is wonderful because you can really get into the futuristic world of the dead among the living.

     Aside from the hyphen thing, the only other criticism I would give the book would be the language.  As a general rule, I don't like vulgar language in literature.  A wise man once said, "Profanity is the effort of a feeble brain to express itself forcibly."  Following this notion, I only except profanity in literature if it is used to denote a simple mind of a brute; usually the villain.  A lot of detective books have it because cops work with the underbelly of society, and often take on some of their idioms.  But, most of the time it demeans what could otherwise be a brilliant piece of literature.  Cam swears a lot, either out-loud, or in her head.  It made her seem less intelligent than she was.  And the narrator should never swear... ever... for any reason.  I could almost let it slide because the exors are a kind of "cop", but the profanity took a lot away from the story instead of adding to it.

     The story, from start to finish, is interesting.  You won't regret picking up this novel.

     With a few minor tweaks I'd give this book 5 stars, but because of the aforementioned issues I give it

Shattered

     Shattered is a Psychological Thriller by Shelby K. Morrison. 

     If I can say one thing; if Mrs. Morrison never makes it as an author, she could make a fortune writing hooks for other authors.  This book grabs you right from the start, and you flip through the pages as fast as you can to see what the heck is going on!  The first several chapters are a "hook", and I have to say that Mrs. Morrison really knows how to get a reader to turn the page.

     Alex, the protagonist, kills a man.  It's not as bad as you think.  She stops a robbery, and in the process stabs the robber to death.  She is let off because it was self-defense, but a gnawing feeling that she should be punished for ending someone's life won't leave her alone.  Brooding, she sees her reflection in a mirror in her apartment, and in disgust, she throws a chair at the mirror.  With the breaking of the glass her world is "shattered". 

     Suddenly, Alex doesn't exist.  She's on a island, in some sort of government-owned facility.  She has no clue as to how she got there, or at what point her life was somehow altered.  She escapes the facility and tries to recover her life.  The only problem is, the life she knew doesn't exist!  Either she's crazy, or there is a government conspiracy.  She gets help from a group who believe the latter.

     An extremely convoluted plot begins to unfold.  Someone has gone to great lengths to cover up Alex's existence.  As she, Ian, and William, her conspiracy theorist friends and saviors, track down the clues, they are ever-pursued by men in black SUV's.  The action keeps you on the edge of your seat through the whole novel.  Alex is never left alone for very long, and her pursuers are always nipping at her heels.  What's worse, it seems her father is tied up in the whole mess, and she has to find a way to save him, too.  However, he might not need "saving."  There are others close to her, that she finds she needs to save instead.

     I pride myself on being able to guess the twist endings in books and movies, but I have to admit that I didn't see this one coming.  It ended so differently than what I thought.  I was impressed. 

     In all, I rather enjoyed this novel.  Mrs. Morrison really has a way of keeping you interested.  If I were to be picky, I would say that the italicized thoughts were fairly distracting.  I never quite understood why editors and publishers disliked omniscient voice in writing until now.  It is very hard to pull off.  On the one hand, Mrs. Morrison was able to quickly give the audience an insight into the characters reactions without interrupting the fast pace of the novel, but on the other hand the characters all seemed to have the same personality when their "thoughts" were expressed.  I don't know how she could have done it better, except to sit down and write different speech patterns and expressions for the different characters so that they would each be unique.  

     Alex was also a little inconsistent, but that may have been done on purpose considering what the government had done to her.  She switches from kickboxing macho woman, to scared timid girl, to chummy spy trying to charm information out of people.  Towards the end of the book, you learn that she has lost the ability to feel certain emotions (I hate to say even that much because I don't want to give away any spoilers), so she could be inconsistent in her behavior because of that, but I tend to think that her character development just needed a little more tweaking to make her more of a real person to the reader.

     The only other criticism I could give is the narration could be a little more proper.  It's okay for a character to say "till" or "cause", but I believe the narrator should say the whole words to add a level of sophistication to the story.  

     In all I would give the novel 

Applied Natural Magic

     Applied Natural Magic is a perfect hybrid of Steam Punk, Mystery, and a touch of Fantasy.  Eric James Spannerman does a wonderful job creating a world where all of these genres can mesh as if they belonged together.  If you would have told me before-hand that Mr. Spannerman was trying to combine all of these genres I would have laughed, and even more tragically, I might have passed on reading the book.  I was oh so surprised to see how well he was able to make the three come together, creating a great read.

     Charles Woodridge, the protagonist, is a junior professor at the Royal Academy.  He lives in a world which is inundated with pollution.  To go outside people need to put on protective clothing, and wear a respirator mask.  Because of the pollution, there is a shortage of food.  The major growers can't grow enough to feed the population, so there are periodic riots.  Charles hopes to solve the problem of rampant hunger by creating a special breed of potatoes which can grow quickly indoors.  

     Being an up and coming businessman, Charles wants to marry well, make a lot of money, gain fame for his work, and live on the nice side of town.  He is well on his way to accomplishing all four of these goals.  He is courting Camilla Mills, the daughter of Sir Anthony Mills.  Sir Anthony is willing to overlook Charles lack of a title if his project does well and becomes a lucrative business.  Sir Anthony is hurting financially, though he doesn't let on to anyone, even his daughter.

     Charles is being evaluated to gain tenure at the academy.  His work is very promising, but he is having difficulty finding an investor among the large growers.  Most of them want to continue doing things the way they've always been done because they know that those methods work.  Charles has peddled his work to many prospects, which becomes a problem later on in the book.  His potential to earn a lot of money is almost guaranteed...  Then tragedy strikes.  There is a break-in at his lab, and all of his research, equipment, and potato breeds are stolen.  To make matters worse, the backup research in the academy vaults is also stolen.  The whole incident wreaks of conspiracy and cover-up, and the list of suspects is almost insurmountable.  

     Charles feels that the police are doing little or nothing to help, the academy won't back him, he may lose his prospective wife, and his whole life is being torn apart.  The only help he has is his strange assistant, Mira Trevarias.  However, Charles even suspects her as a culprit for the theft .  There is something strange about her that everyone suspects, but nobody can quite put their finger on.

     Mr. Spannerman is an incredible author.  I've been reading a lot of Indie and small publisher books lately, and this is the first one I've truly enjoyed.  The characters were rich, intelligent, and real.  The writing was smooth and consistent.  The story was amazing.  The mix of genres was more than impressive.  I was thoroughly impressed.  I was also saddened by the lack of sales Mr. Spannerman has recieved on Amazon.  Perhaps he is selling well elsewhere, but he's well past the one millionth place in sales on Amazon.  This is a tragedy of poor advertising because Mr. Spannerman is as good, if not better, than a lot of the well-published authors I've read recently.  I wish I had the means to advertise for him because this is an incredible read.

     I fully recommend Applied Natural Magic to any reader.  The Fantasy aspect is not corny.  The Steam Punk is not winded and boring like most I've read.  And the mystery is realistic and keeps you guessing.  It's an incredible story.  Read it, and then tell your friends.  If Mr. Spannerman had proper advertising, he'd easily be on the best seller's list.

     I give this book