Category Archives: Book Reviews

Book review: Hat Dance

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March is finally here, and hopefully warmer weather will soon be upon us. I can’t wait. I’m tired of the cold and the ice. Be that as it may, I have a new book to share with you, this time by author Carmen Amato entitled Hat Dance. You can find out more about the author on her website, on Twitter, and on Amazon. Enjoy!

Hat Dance_final_300pxWhen Emilia Cruz joined Kurt Rucker, an American who ran El Palacio Réal, one of the most luxurious hotels in the city, she thought it would simply be a night out at a restaurant her salary could never afford. Kurt soon announced that another resort in Belize was interested in him to run their property, and he wanted her to join him to check out the potential offer. Never could she have guessed that before the date was over, losing Kurt would be the least of her problems.

In Carmen Amato’s novel, Hat Dance, we meet Emilia, who works as a detective with the Acapulco Police Department, and who helped close down a casino that was a front for organized crime. Kurt took her to El Tigre, an upscale restaurant, where they ran into the popular mayor of the city Carlota Montoya Perez, and the head of the police Union, Victor Obregon Sosa. As Kurt and Emilia leave, their night comes to halt when a bomb tears through El Tigre.

Seen as a potential assassination attack on the mayor, Emilia quickly finds herself in an escalating game of political theatrics, navigating the inflated egos of the powerful while trying to solve a complex case. Complicating it even further is her assignment to a new partner who is openly disdainful of her, and a police lieutenant who appears incompetent.

Adding to her drama, she agrees to accept a personal case on the side, a missing person’s report which alienates her from her partner even farther. In a city where corruption is rampant, and the powerful are known to be on the take, can Emilia get to the bottom of the case before others are hurt or killed?

What Carmen has done is to create a story rich and powerful. The storyline is dynamic, with several threads woven to create a varied tapestry, of lives intersecting at a specific moment in time, of lives hanging in the balance, all depending on her and a reluctant partner to solve a high-stakes case. I enjoyed this book and I hope you will too.

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Book Review: Solid Rock

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We’re at the mid-way point of February, and thankfully Valentine’s Day is over. I hoped you survived it as I did. Now we can all get back to doing what is really important in our lives, reading a good book. Today’s featured book is by Sam Quentin. I hope you enjoy!

Solid Rock

Solid Rock © 2014 Sam Quentin

When Keldraid Defense – an upstart company seeking to join the lucrative world of national defense – creates a new technology, one that promises to revolutionize America’s abilities to seek and destroy her enemies, they prepare a presentation to give to the top brass of the U.S. Military. Little do they know that the military is not the only one interested in Kedraid’s technology.

As Jeff Draid finalizes his speech, with the help of Keldraid partner and mentor, Professor Kelman, Jeff soon finds himself as the target of an all out assault, seeking to kill him and everyone associated with the project, in order to steal the technology and so win what promises to be a $2.5 billion profit machine.

With his team killed, Jeff is forced to go on the run, and every where he turns to for help, he ends up leaving a trail of bodies in his wake. He becomes the prime suspect of the murders of his team mates and friends he tries to turn to for help. After turning to the media for help, he is kidnapped by a defense contractor, hoping to turn Jeff’s dream into reality.

What follows is an intense game of corporate espionage and murder-for-hire, where greed and the promise of huge profits trumps the right to life, and Jeff finds himself caught in the crossfire. His survival depends on delivering the device to his host, with no real assurance that his name will be cleared in the murders of his friends, or even that his life will be spared.

As the precariousness of his situation becomes clear, Jeff must make a choice, or remaining in relative safety with his captors and hope they make good on their promise to clear his name, and make his wealthy in the process, or find a chance to escape, knowing well that failure will mean a horrific death at the hands of those who claim to protect him.

Sam Quentin wrote a riveting book, with many twists and turns. You don’t know which characters to trust, and what motives they each may have that could be detrimental to the novel’s main character. There is a real sense of fear from not knowing if the protagonist will survive until the end.

The book itself is relatively short and easy to read. The premise of the story seems plausible, and the technology itself, which at first seems like science fiction, could easily be believed to be viable, and maybe it’s already being created at this very moment. I enjoyed the book and feel that’s it’s well worth the price to buy if you own an e-reader.

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Previous Review – The Woman Who Sparked the Greatest Sex Scandal of All Time

Book Review: The Woman Who Sparked the Greatest Sex Scandal of All Time

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Super Bowl Sunday has come and gone, with Seattle the victors and a very disappointed Denver in its wake. February also brings with it a reminder of romance for the lovers out there, as well as another book for me to review. Today I will be reviewing an Eli Yaakunah novel. You can find her on Facebook.

scandalImagine a not-so-distant future, when the media conglomerates are no more, replaced by an ever-present “Agency” that possess the unchecked monopoly of not only disseminating the news, but that creates and scripts the world’s realities, from sports, local news, and even elections the world over. Welcome to the world of your protagonist, Ishtar Benten, a young woman in the employ of the Agency, who is promoted to Scriptwriter, and discovers that in her, and her fellow “god’s” hands are held the (mis)fortune of the world.

The Woman Who Sparked the Greatest Sex Scandal of All Time is her story. What resonates is the idea of a pervasive all-powerful organization, that controls what we are told and believe. The concept is not too far out of the realm of possibilities when one considers the intrusiveness of Government, (CIA, FBI, NSA), and the idea that only a few select – the wealthy and powerful – are truly in control of our destinies, only furnishing the illusion that we have a voice in our world.

The novel is narrated by Ishtar, who specializes in news stories with sexual undertones. As such, the reader is treated to several highly suggestive and graphic scenes of sex, and of violence. Many scenes come straight from her imagination, others are seen as she engages another for a passionate round of intimacy.

The story begins to gel when it becomes clear the Ishtar is beginning to question the morality and ethics of her workplace. The novel is a journey of discovery, not only of the environment around her, the characters in it, and the greater truth that lies beneath the woven tapestry that she helped fabricate, but also a personal one, where she must surrender herself quietly to the role assigned to her, or rebel against the authorities, and likely forfeit her job, and possibly her life.

The greater story is well told, and after wading through several chapters, does manage to grasp the reader. What I had trouble with was the attempt at creating a sensual image during the erotic parts of the stories. That, I feel, failed because it became labored with too many words attempting to conjure an image that is at once provocative and sexual. This is an instance where less would have been more.

Instead of allowing the reader to create the imagined dalliance, the writer tried to impose their idea of the protagonist’s sexual exploits down to the minute detail. What I found was a story that begged me to put it on the nightstand and forget it, which would have been a shame, since the story proper was actually quite good.

Understand, I am not a big fan of romance and/or erotica, so my review may be suspect. What I can say is that while I liked the story of the Agency, the erotica left me in want of something better, something more cohesive. The sex pushed me out of the story instead of enticing me in. As such, it felt clumsy, the transitions between the graphic sex scenes were not smooth, and I didn’t get hooked into the story until very late, long after I would have given up trying to read the book had I not agreed to review it.

In the end, I found the book to be a mixed-bag. I cannot assign a simple good or bad grade on it, so I’m left to flip-flop a bit and say “it’s good, but it has some problems.” Thus, I will not recommend this book to read, unless you are a fan of the genre, which is a shame. The book had promise of being a lot better than I found it, but that’s just this reader’s opinion.

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Previous Review – Crimson Return

Book Review: Crimson Return

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Happy Monday everyone! Hope the weekend treated you well. Today I’m reviewing Crimson Return by Daelynn Quinn. This is the second book of a series, and also the second book of Daelynn’s I have had the fortune to review. If you haven’t read the first book, please be advised that there may be some spoilers in this review. You can find the author at Daelynnquinn.com, on Facebook and on Twitter.

Crimson Return

Crimson Return © Daelynn Quinn 2013

Crimson Return, the second book of the Fall of Venus trilogy, picks up a few months after the events of Fall of Venus. Once again, we follow Pollen McRae, a young woman, who like all the world’s population, has suffered unimaginable loss and grapples with the new reality, that their world is now uninhabitable.

Pollen is now safe from the Trinity, three of the worlds most rich and powerful, and orchestraters of the world’s demise, in the stronghold of COPS, along with her niece Evie, and Marcus, another escapee from the Trinity’s safehouse/prison, the Crimson Survivor Refuge. In the safety of COPS, they both have found a way to contribute to the continuation of the human race, to help escape the runaway global warming catastrophe facing them.

As they settle in, Pollen’s ex-fiancee Glenn mysteriously shows up. Glenn, who had sided with the Trinity and became a Crimson Enforcer, but ended up helping his ex and her niece and new boyfriend escape, His appearance triggers a crisis for Pollen and the COPS. Should Glenn be trusted? Should he be allowed to remain?

He upsets Pollen’s certainty in regards to her new boyfriend Marcus, and begins to drive a wedge in her relationship. Later, when plans go missing, and equipment sabotaged, this confirms to COPS and to her that Glenn cannot be trusted. Before his sentence is carried out, he delivers a bombshell, someone she believes to be dead is in fact being held captive by the Trinity.

Crimson Return is about survival against all odds, and fighting for what is right and for those who you love. It’s about the struggle against the establishment that puts their own financial well-being above the lives of the poor and weak. It’s about the value of life, and the premium we sometimes are forced to pay in order to live it.

But in its essence, it’s about the struggles of a young woman trying to live her life in the midst of an epic catastrophe. Can she do what is right or will she fail at the first sight of temptation? Will she be faithful to the love of her life, or will she be seduced by the memory of another?

It is in the setting then, that we see that even when facing such adversity, the will of the human spirit to persevere is great, and the dramas of life, both big and small, continue, bringing with it both great joy and terrible heartaches. There are consequences to accept, and new realities to overcome.

Of Pollen McRae, a young woman in her early twenties yet very much a child in thought, the events of this book will push her to the precipice and she will have to choose between the naiveté of youth, and the cold pragmatism of maturity. As the fate of the world is at stake, and as life succumbs to the stranglehold of a moribund planet, this is still one woman’s journey into adulthood.

Crimson Return sets the stage for the conclusion of the series, will Pollen accept responsibility? Will she be able to fight for the ones she loves and for the survival of a people facing extinction?

Of the author, Daelynn Quinn matured as a writer between the first book and second book. While I had some trouble getting into the first book, I fell back into an easy and comfortable rhythm with this one. She has done a fantastic job creating a world and populating it with characters you can care about. Not only do I recommend reading Crimson Return, I urge you to go back and read Fall of Venus. I know you will not be disappointed.

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Book Review: The Birth of Vengeance

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The holidays are over, and we are at the beginning of a new year. So to all of you, Happy New Year! To start of on the right foot, I have a great book for you all. The Birth of Vengeance, by Paul Ross. You can follow him on Twitter @rossywrites.

frontcover tbov

When I began reading The Birth of Vengeance, I quietly wondered what the story was about. To begin with, you meet Jonathon Harper, a rather unremarkable young man, nearing the end of his school career, and looking forward to beginning college. His is a life which takes a turn for the worse when he’s becomes the target of a local gang of bullies and thugs, causing him to lose his one and only friend, and making him and his father flee his hometown for his safety.

It isn’t until several chapters on that he meets Thorn, a beautiful and dangerous woman, held captive and forced to be the subject of government experiments, and oh yeah, she’s a vampire. Once he is able to free Throne, the real story begins. Vengeance, then, is another entry into the burgeoning, and I would say over-crowded genre of Vampire literature.

So what makes Vengeance unique? We’ve seen vampires as heroes and we’ve seen vampires as villains. Thorn, at least in this novel, is neither. She’s content to be, to exist and co-exist, to feed and let live, only killing when she senses her victims mean to do her, and others harm. Not quite virtuous, but not entirely evil in a classical sense. Which is not to say she has a strong moral code.

She begins to mentor the weak and pathetic Jon, teaching him, molding him to become a man, to fight and to stand up for himself. Aided with a serum developed by Thorns captors, which when injected, gives the injectees vampire-like strength and aggression, Jon learns to fight, and begins a campaign to seek revenge on those who tormented him. In the end, this becomes a test. Jon has to prove his devotion to Thorn, and his worthiness of becoming a vampire.

The Birth of Vengeance is an easy read. Nothing remarkable about it, which is not to say it’s not worth checking out. It may not have the broad commercial appeal of a Twilight Saga, or the upcoming Vampire Academy, which in my book makes it even more appealing. This is not some lame, tween vampire romance novel.

What it is, however, is a coming-of-age story, where the protagonist must learn to face his fears, to grow up and take charge of his own destiny. He is forced to make life-altering decisions and accept the consequences of said decisions, and I’ll admit that I felt a grim sense of satisfaction whenever he meets his former tormentors.

Vengeance is a good, solid story, that should appeal to those who would like to enjoy a casual read. It’s entertaining, with some dark moments which are resolved in a satisfying manner. I wholly recommend you read it.

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Next Review – Crimson Return
Previous Review – Firstborn