Teramo, Italy; A world renown physicist goes missing from the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso. He is responsible for heading up a cutting edge experiment known as OPERA, a joint venture with CERN that is shrouded in mystery. The authorities are met with nothing but silence. Luke Temple does not officially exist, he works for a covert intelligence organisation known only as Group 9. He is dispatched to Italy to carry out a routine operation; investigate the sudden disappearance of Professor Ernesto Vittorio. The operation appears standard, an easy task for a man of Temple’s ability. But in the dark world he inhabits nothing is ever as it seems, and he soon discovers that the disappearance of the professor is part of a much darker threat. This time Temple will need every bit of strength and skill he possesses to stop a threat so powerful it could alter the entire world as we know it….

James Flynn’s, Chasing The Dawn, is available now on Amazon Kindle and Kobo Books

***

I really enjoyed Shannon Hale’s tale of a young girl trained to become a princess. Miri is a likable heroine, and her conflicted desires ring true for a girl her age. She loves her mountain village, her family–and is starting to have strange feelings for a boy she’s known since childhood. At first she can’t imagine ever leaving them. But the lure of wealth, power, and adventure offered along with the title of Princess is awfully tempting; even if it means marriage to a Prince she’s never met, and may not even ultimately like. The only requirement on her part is a full year of training. At first, Miri doesn’t see the value in learning to read, or of practicing Conversation, or memorizing the rules of Diplomacy. However, the moment she discovers that the letters she’s tracing in her clay tablet are connected to words that make up wonderful stories–and illuminating facts in Tutor Olana’s books–she becomes eager to learn more. True to a teenage girl, though, what really spurs Miri to compete for the title of Academy Princess–the top scholar in the class–is the beautiful gown promised the winner, along with the knowledge that her father and sister could also live a life of ease if the Price should choose her as his bride.

Education transforms Miri from a bright, curious, yet ignorant mountain girl into a valuable asset to her classmates, her family, and ultimately, her village. As the daughter of a former teacher, I truly appreciated the theme of how education–and knowledge–elevates the status and abilities of those in society, and how it can be used to right injustices. The side story of the bandits attacking the academy was just another way for Miri to show her bravery, ingenuity, and resourcefulness.

I give it four stars instead of five only because there were a few quibbles I had with the plotline. Nothing major, but I did wonder about a few points. For instance, it’s stated that in years past, the Princess Academy was nothing more than a few days of society for girls already of noble birth. This time, since the girls are nothing more than uneducated mountain girls, a year’s worth of training is needed. Quite understandable. Why, then, considering that one of these girls will someday be Princess (and eventually Queen), are the girls made to do household chores? They themselves don’t find it unusual; they did much harder work in their lives back home, but it just struck me as odd. The only adults at the academy are a cook, a tutor, and a couple soldiers for protection. I expected there to be maids and such to cater to the girls, for them to be given new clothing, for them to be at least somewhat pampered. None of that was the case.

In addition, Tutor Olana treats the girls harshly, and seems uninterested in helping those struggling with their studies. Again, one of these girls will be Princess and will have immense power over Olana afterwards, so her behavior towards them seemed unrealistic. However, the girls finally realize the unique situation they have and politely but firmly strike a deal with Olana that is satisfactory for all.

One method Miri uses to aid those around her is a sort of telepathic capability to communicate; a practice the stone-cutter villagers have long had. Miri is able to refine and almost perfect this skill. Some might find this theme troublesome. I would have preferred Miri’s talents to be solely related to her cleverness myself. However, since the author chose this path, I had a few quibbles as to how it was applied. For instance, all the girls at the academy have the ability to "quarry-speak", yet when their need is dire, Miri is the only one who uses it to call for help. It seemed to me that if all the girls had joined in with Miri’s efforts, their pleas for aid would have had a better chance of being heard.

Despite my quibbles, however, I will gladly give this book to my 10 year old niece for her birthday. I’m pairing it with the classic, A Little Princess, by Frances Hodgson Burnett, another tale of a girl suffering under the harsh treatment of a headmistress.

Click here to buy Princess Academy from Amazon and view excerpts.
Click here to view the author’s website.

Disclaimer: I bought Princess Academy for my niece’s 10th birthday and had to read it first to make sure it was approriate for her. My reviews are not influenced by receiving free review copies, nor am I compensated any other way for reviewing books. I may provide affiliate links where books can be purchased, but I do this of my own volition.

Additionally, as an adult, it’s obvious that the books’ photos are somewhat taken out of context, since the foxes don’t really come that close to the other animals. But I think a child would enjoy the book, and I’ll have no problem passing my copy to my nieces and nephews. They’d enjoy the photos and might even learn a few animal facts in the process.

I give this book 5 stars because the photos themselves are just stunning. The storyline is more of an afterthought.

Click here to buy Adventures of Rusty & Ginger Fox from Amazon and view excerpts
Click here to view the author’s website.

Disclaimer: I received a free review copy of Adventures of Rusty & Ginger Fox. My reviews are not influenced by receiving free review copies, nor am I compensated any other way for reviewing books. I may provide affiliate links where books can be purchased, but I do this of my own volition.

***

I have to admit I felt slightly annoyed right from the start when I read Evil Angel. That annoyance became outright irritation by the middle and end of the book. So much so that I complained about the book to my husband and mother-in-law afterwards! But first I’ll tell you what I liked about the book. I enjoyed the main plot: Terri, a mentally disturbed young woman marries her “dream guy” and has a child with him, only to drive him away with her emotional instability. She attempts to win him back by exacting revenge on anyone she thinks is standing in the way of her true love. We watch as she slowly spirals deeper and deeper into vengeful insanity. Watching her
self-destruction was fascinating.

Larson’s writing style is generally good, suspenseful, with some pretty phrases here and there. That said, what annoyed me from the start was the lack of proofreading and editing. I can overlook a typo or two, especially in an ebook, but not mid-sentence revisions and repeated sentences. And not starting in the very first paragraph of the novel! But even that wouldn’t have bothered me if the characters had been more likable. There’s Jack, who has been on the receiving end of his wife’s violence, seen her attempt suicide (apparently more than once), knows that she isn’t seeing her psychiatrist as she claims, and
yet he sees no problem leaving his baby daughter alone with her. Especially so he can get away to ski for a few days and clear his head. Selfish much? And though he now sees the foolishness of having jumped into the relationship with Terri after his first marriage abruptly ended, he doesn’t see the irony of now jumping into a sexcapade with instant ski buddy Hillary the day after he leaves Terri.

For her part, Hillary starts out as a sensible, sympathetic character. Still grieving over the death of her long-term boyfriend, we see her stand up to a bullying dad at the ski resort, and learn she’s a social worker who helps abused children and women. But within hours of meeting Jack she’s willing to throw out all sensibility in order to bed him. Never mind he’s married with a baby. When said wife and baby show up in town, this would be a cue for Hillary to quietly bow out, but she still pursues the relationship. But the “jump the shark” moment for me was when Hillary is attacked and beaten. Does she call the police the first chance she gets? Does she warn others who may soon
be in the path of her attacker? No, she decides to just go home and forget all about it. If she’d had a history of abuse, her reaction could be understood. But this is the first time she’s ever been smacked around, and that, combined with her career fighting for victims of abuse, makes her reaction totally unbelievable.

One last annoyance was when Jack is in the emergency room after a minor accident. A nurse brings him and Hillary bowls of onion soup, French bread, and tapioca. I had to roll my eyes. First, no one is served food in an emergency room, let alone both the patient and his visitor! And onion soup and French bread? In a hospital? You’ve got to be kidding me. The tapicoca I can believe, though green Jell-O would’ve been spot-on.

With a little revamping, I could’ve given Evil Angel 4 stars, but as it is I have to give it 2.

Click Here to buy Evil Angel from Amazon
Click here to buy Evil Angel from Fictionwise. Includes Chapter 1 excerpt.
Click here to read Chapter 3 excerpt

Disclaimer: I received a PDF review copy of Evil Angel. My reviews are not influenced by receiving free review copies, nor am I compensated any other way for reviewing books. I may provide affiliate links where books can be purchased, but I do this of my own volition.

***

Julia Stone’s locked door is unlocked. Wood blocks spelling out her nickname are on her coffee table. Her digital clock is stuck on the same time; 4:06. Her shut window is wide open. Eyes stare at her from the darkness outside. Someone is obviously trying to gaslight her. Or maybe she’s just crazy. After years of therapy, Julia is having trouble distinguishing between what’s real and what isn’t. And she doesn’t know whom to trust. Her therapist who’s trying to help rid her of panic attacks? The local handyman who keeps showing up at her door? Her long-time boyfriend who is anxious to get married? Her nosy old neighbor? Or are they all just creeps like the nameless, faceless entities she conjures in her mind?

The Skull Ring is a psychological thriller, one that had me hooked from beginning to end. In fact, I stayed up till 2:00 a.m. reading the last six chapters because I just couldn’t put it down! I particularly liked Julia Stone; she keeps fighting to maintain her sanity, and rather than act like a helpless victim, she uses her background as a reporter to investigate her own past. She’s determined to overcome her panic attacks through therapy rather than drugs, and once she realizes the true character of someone she trusted, she doesn’t hesitate in rejecting him. She has moments of wanting to give in and give up, but she doesn’t. She keeps trying to overcome whatever obstacles are holding her back, whether they be real or imagined.

The Skull Ringis well written, highly suspenseful, and avoids being preachy despite its religious undertones. The ending was fairly satisfying, because I totally believed the methods and motives of some characters; for instance, the sheriff and the therapist. They had vastly different outlooks on how they wanted this story to end, but I believed them both. I liked the idea of a “long con” being played, and I like the idea of one (or more) fanatical true believers in a cult. But I don’t buy big decades-long conspiracies, especially one that leaves mutilated bodies in its wake. No one notices a pattern? Really? I won’t go into any more detail because I want to avoid spoilers. But I was a bit disappointed in some of the concluding reveals.

I also felt a few loose ends were left hanging, such as Julia’s aversion to a barn near her childhood home. She has a horryfiing memory while in the barn, but it’s never clearly explained how she came to have that particular memory. We’re left to our own conclusions about it, but I prefer things more clearly spelled out at the end, especially when the story has us constantly guessing between the reality and fantasy of the main character’s experiences. We also never find out specifically what happened to Julia’s father–we pretty much know what, just not the how and where. I would like to have known. Morbid curiosity, I suppose. And how the heck do you get a digital clock to stay stuck on the same numbers?

But despite my complaints here, I did enjoy the story overall and look forward to reading more from Scott Nicholson. Be sure to read my interview with him.

Click here to buy the paperback or Kindle version.from Amazon
Click here to buy the PDF version from DriveThruHorror.com (Read part of the 1st chapter for free)
Click here to buy all other versions from Smashwords.com (Read Chapters 1 – 3 for free)
Click here to visit the Author’s website
Click here to buy a signed trade paperback

No Date for Gomez! is a prequel novella to the No Hope for Gomez! series. It is a complete and stand-alone story. No Hope for Gomez! is now available from Amazon.
Price: Free
Author Bio: Graham Parke is responsible for a number of technical publications and has recently patented a self-folding map. He has been described as both a humanitarian and a pathological liar. Convincing evidence to support either allegation has yet to be produced.

No Hope for Gomez! is Graham’s fiction debut. You can visit his website at www.grahamparke.com.

***

When Graham Parke sent me an email requesting a review of No Date for Gomez!, my initial inclination was to turn him down. The description of his novella didn’t quite appeal to me, and neither did the cover. (I know, I know, don’t judge a digital book by its cover*.) But since I like to give authors a chance to win me over, I looked to see if by chance there was a preview of the first chapter to read. (I like to read a snippet of any book before I pass final judgment.) To my surprise, the entire ebook was a freebie! I downloaded the PDF version, figuring I’d read the first few paragraphs, hate them, and thus feel no guilt in sending a kindly rejection email.

But the first sentence got me interested, so I read more, then a little more, and by the time I finished the first chapter–a mere 2½ pages later–I was hopelessly hooked. I had planned to do some productive work on the computer (paying bills, working on taxes, etc.), but instead I spent the next hour or so reading the entire story, smiling and laughing practically the entire time. No Date for Gomez!is absolutely hilarious.

Gomez is a nerdy, nice guy (sort of like Peter Parker at the beginning of Spider-Man, before he gets his spidey superpowers) who is completely clueless when it comes to people of the female persuasion. He falls for the beautiful new girl in his building, Gretchen, and immediately tries to come up with schemes to get her to go out with him. His priority is to show her how cool he is, so that when he gets around to asking her out, she’ll say yes. Unfortunately, he becomes tongue-tied whenever he runs into her, so their conversations typically go something like this:

I could remember talking to people. Knowing the kinds of things one said in polite conversation. I could remember making people think and laugh. But, at that very moment, I couldn’t put my finger on any of the words one might use when running into a fellow human being in a hallway.

Gretchen smiled and said, “Hi!”

Which was one of the words one might use.

“How are you doing today?”

Which, I now recalled, was a bunch of others.

Gomez soon becomes convinced Gretchen is annoyed with him, which turns out to be true, but not for the reasons he imagines. My only confusion after finishing the novella was that the dark secret Gretchen is hiding isn’t revealed or even hinted at. When I asked Parke about that, he said that there is more to come. I can’t wait!

No Date for Gomez! is the most fun read I’ve had in a long time. Do yourself a favor; turn off the depressing news, skip the latest episode of Lost, and read this instead. It’ll put you in a better mood.

Click here to download No Date for Gomez!
Click here to visit Graham Parke’s website
Click here for a chance to receive a free signed, printed copy of No Date for Gomez!

*Update: Parke provided a new cover that I like better; that’s the one posted here. 

***

Mr. Darcy Broke My Heart isn’t your typical paperback romance, and for this reason alone I loved it. First of all, the heroine, Claire Prescott, isn’t perfect. Through the course of the novel she realizes her own frailties and flaws and by the end of the book she has made steps towards becoming a better person. She doesn’t blame everyone else for her problems. She learns that having a dashing “Mr. Darcy” sweep her off her feet doesn’t heal all hurts, nor does it rescue her from the realities of life. Her character’s motives and actions rang true for me, and it was refreshing to read a romance that didn’t espouse the notion that all a woman needs is a rich, handsome guy to magically wave away her neurosis by marrying her.

The secondary storyline, that of Claire meeting a slightly daft elderly woman, Harriet Dalrymple, whose greatest secret is ownership of the original First Impressions manuscript (which was destroyed after Jane Austen reworked it into Pride and Prejudice), was a delightful twist in the story. Pattillo imagines how the original plot may have differed from the story we all know, and treats us to her version. I was just as interested as Claire in reading the scraps of manuscript pages doled out to her over the course of a week’s time. For me it was a fun diversion from the main story; for laire it helped provide insight into how her life got off track and the motivation to correct it.

Amidst Claire trying to help Harriet with the secret manuscript and becoming ever more attracted to the dashing James Beaufort, her boyfriend unexpectedly shows up, threatening to ruin the little house of cards she’s built for herself during her week-long excursion in Oxford. Claire has to figure out what to do with an angry boyfriend when she’s got a chance to snag a Mr. Darcy of her own. I was completely satisfied at her solution—and the conclusion of the novel itself.

Overall, Mr. Darcy Broke My Heart is a fun and breezy read. I loved the humor and the light-hearted tone. The only thing I didn’t like is that due to my schedule I could read it only in bits and pieces over the course of a month. I hated having to put it down to attend to more pressing matters–I felt like Claire having to wait for the forgetful Harriet to find another section of the First Impressions manuscript! I recommend this book, especially if you’re tired of reading the same old retread romances.

Click here to order Mr. Darcy Broke My Heart
Click here to visit Beth Pattillo’s website

***

I totally related to Suze Hall. She’s a forty something, graying, slightly overweight, associate editor who has the boss from hell. I fit that physical description, and though I had a different job title, I’ve had a female boss almost as nasty as Wanda Walsh. I empathized with Suze as she dealt with the kind of office politics I left behind four years ago. Her family struggles were also totally believable–how to become a career woman while still staying connected to her children’s lives, and how to understand her husband’s desire to temporarily leave her just when her old boyfriend shows up after twenty years. Her reactions are at once contradictory and authentic. When she tells a big lie at work that only her old boyfriend can rectify, we feel her dread as everything spirals out of control.

I loved the humor Bell brought to her writing–and her character’s personality. In the beginning of the book, Suze muses,

I have come to understand that the big questions such as, What is my purpose in life? and Why am I here? converge with the little questions like, Where is my other shoe? and When will pot roast go on sale? Big questions, little questions, big thoughts, little thoughts, even famous people have them. So we’re not so different.

Except for the limos.

Bell writes well, capturing the clever, mundane, and sometimes random thoughts running through Suze’s mind perfectly. During a romantic escapade, the writing suddenly turns more and more florid, which at first confused me, until I realized the reason for the purple prose, and loved the jest. The ending is satisfying, though I would have liked an epilogue to let us know if everything turns out where it seems it’s headed. The ending is also preceded with an essay written by the character which seems too much like a “moral to the story.” Although I liked the essay itself, it seemed too long and I soon wanted to get back to the real story.

But overall, Walking With Elephants was a fun read, and I recommend it.

Buy Walking With Elephants (pdf)
Buy Walking With Elephants (lit)
Read the first chapter
Karen S. Bell’s website

***

I loved Donna VanLiere’s autobiography Finding Grace and so I was excited when I got the opportunity to read and review The Christmas Secret. I hadn’t read any of VanLiere’s Christmas series, though I did see the movie version of The Christmas Shoes (and of course, heard the song.) Since Finding Grace was an almost perfectly
written book, I looked forward to reading VanLiere’s fiction. Unfortunately, I was disappointed with The Christmas Secret. Not so much with the storyline; I enjoyed that. Most of my disappointment was due to the writing itself. I think a little more editing was in order.

The book begins with a prologue in which the protagonist, Christine, recalls a particular
Christmas in her childhood, and how her adult life since then had been spent stumbling around without any direction or goal. “I got to the point in my life where I was so tired of waiting and wanted to know that my life was not just leading anywhere but somewhere,” she tells us. Christine ends the prologue by stating that with help, “I discovered the gift.” This was similar to the theme of Finding Grace, so I was drawn right into the story. But the first chapter gave me troubles. It’s subtitled “November – One Year Earlier,” which I took to mean a year earlier in Christine’s childhood, since the prologue takes place then. But no, it means a year earlier than her discovering the “gift” which is summed up in the epilogue at the end of the book. At any rate it took me three paragraphs into the chapter when Christine’s five-year-old daughter enters the scene to realize the storyline has jumped to Christine as an adult. The subtitle should have been eliminated altogether; it was unnecessary and just caused confusion.

Later in the same chapter, Christine has a flashback of a conversation with her mother. Again, this transition was a bit confusing. I think the section should have been broken with an extra line of space to better delineate that it’s a flashback instead of mashing
it between the scenes taking place in the present.

But by far the most irksome thing of the novel to me was the choice to switch from Christine’s first-person point of view to other characters’ third-person point of view. I suppose I’ve read novels before that do this, but I found it quite jarring. I would have preferred Christine’s POV to be in third-person to match with the rest of the characters.

VanLiere choses not to name the town in which the story takes place (or at least, I never saw a name), so when Christine tells us, “When Brad found a job here my mother seemed angry,” my first thought was where’s “here”? The restaurant Christine is working in when she relates this to us? The town? The state? My confusion could have been avoided by simply replacing “here” with “in this town” or by simply giving the town a name.

Some of the writing gave me a chuckle, such as this sentence: “‘Everyone clocks in here,’ she said, pushing open the door to an empty room filled with vending machines and three small round tables with chairs.” (An “empty” room shouldn’t be “filled” with anything but air.) I’m not saying the writing was bad, it just needed a little more polishing/editing.

And one last complaint. One thing about Christine’s character that bothered me no end was the fact that she refuses to allow her ex-husband visitation with their children because he hasn’t paid child support. This is the only reason she continually refuses contact. I find this vindictive and petty. Of course he should be paying child support and is a deadbeat not to. Yes, he’s a jerk to her and pulls nasty stunts of his own to get even. However, he is not abusive or dangerous to her or the children, so there’s no reason she should cut off contact between them. And since she’s desperate for a babysitter, refusing to allow him to care for the children is plain silly. She doesn’t even allow the children to know he stops by to see them. Severing their relationship with him over money is selfish. He is their father and a continuing relationship with them should be encouraged, not used as a weapon. (Besides, he’s more likely to pay up if he actually gets to see his kids.) None of the characters point this out to her; in fact they aid her in keeping the ex away from the children. Disgusting. (Okay, enough of my soapbox.)

So each of these annoyances kept me from really enjoying the book at first. However, after 80 or 90 pages (and a day or so break from reading it) I really started getting into the story. I liked the characters, enjoyed the multiple storylines and how they interconnected, found the romance appealing, guessed most of the twists beforehand (which didn’t diminish their reveals) and didn’t get tripped up with any more of the writing. Most of the mysteries are resolved at the end, and I felt satisfied after the book was finished. It’s possible I’d read the book again, and I am still definitely interested in reading VanLiere’s previous Christmas books. And I plan to watch the movie versions of the books on LMN. Overall, I’d give the book a solid “B” grade. Well done, with plenty room for improvement.

For more information about Donna VanLiere and her books, visit http://www.donnavanliere.com.
About The Christmas Secret: http://donnavanliere.com/books.html#tcsec
To order The Christmas Secret, click here.
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