Book Review: The Day After Oblivion by Tim Washburn

4/5 Stars 560 pages
Published January 30th 2018 by Pinnacle Books

What’s it like going through a nuclear apocalypse? What do you do while you try to survive the radiation period? Where do you go after? If you’ve ever wondered about any of those situations and many more, this book might be your perfect match for your next read.

Following a multitude of different people and situations, this book explores almost anything you can think of, and that’s exactly what I loved about i. Very exciting from the start, even showing the president of the united states for a bit. The world is futuristic, but not too far in the future from us now, and very well could be here and now. The end of the world comes quickly with nukes, by hackers, and it’s exactly as frightening as it sounds.

Almost to a fault, this book shows many, many different points of view. But there are a few static storylines, two teachers protecting their students, two co-workers, and a man and his pregnant wife. Though very different in theory, they work so well together.

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If i had to think of the most realistic apocalypse books, this would be one of the top cones. I never thought about how hard it would be for some of the different kinds of situations of people surviving the wasteland, but now that I know about them, I can’t stop thinking about them. The characters just seem so lifelike, and the world is so much like ours that it’s very intriguing and immersive and horrifying.

Overall, this book is one of surviving, and perfect for any fans of the genre. It’s great, and one of those that will make you want to start prepping for the end of the world. Great for readers sixteen and up.

If you’d like to grab a copy, you can here!

And if you’d like to keep up with the author on Twitter, you can here!

Thanks for reading! Hope you have a great day, and maybe buy an extra can of soup or something when you get groceries.

Book Review: Eden’s Serum (Eden Lost #1) by Angelique S. Anderson

4/5 Stars 310 pages
Published April 6th 2017 by Creative Angel Design and Publication

Encapsulated in a beautiful cover, ,this horrific story tells about a world where tech has advanced far beyond the need for identification and money, and even illness. Eden’s Serum is one that only the richest of the rich can afford, offering youth, health and above all, immortality. But as Adam is about to find out, not everything is as it seems, and his ultra rich bachelor life may not b as satisfying as it once was.

After developing a kind of super card that took the world by storm, dubbed simply the Identicoin, the book begins with an emergency. And Adam is headed head first into the bomb threat at his workplace to do whatever he can to save his life’s work. Interesting enough, this opening scene really sets the pace for the rest of the book, if you can believe it. Because two years later, the Indenticoin has completely taken over the world. And Adam has more money than he knows what to do with babies are now assigned an Identicoin at birth, holding all the important paperwork they could ever need for their upcoming lives, and are required to wear it at all times in public by law.

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The next technological leap that Adam wants to take with his life is making himself immortal. Through injection and claimed to be made from plants, it seems safe enough, after all, Adam’s genius must stick around as long as possible so that he can continue to change the world with his inventions. But is it truly safe? Has it even been fully tested? And why do the doctors preparing him for this next part of his life seem so sketchy? What are they hiding?

Aside from these everyday problems; Adam’s work turns out to be spying deep into his personal life, which he’s obviously not happy about, but is willing to put up with it for a cushy promotion, new house, and a workplace he’s allowed to run, by himself. But not long after his injection, he goes to work hiring people for his new office, and begins experiencing horrible blackouts, accompanied by blinding pain.

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Honestly, I really enjoyed this book. I love things about tech and the future and everything like that, and this book fits that perfectly. It was mysterious and exciting, and all the characters were very realistic with their good and bad traits showing for everyone to be hyperaware of. I was very interested in uncovering everything that was hidden by the higher-ups in this story, and the big adventure that Adam and Evelyn have to o through to really get to know what’s really going on was extremely gripping and easy to get into. I think this was a really great take on the classic Adam ad Eve and the Garden of Eden story. I can’t wait to see what’s going to happen next in the series, and I think to put it simply, this is a great story about trusting y our gut and your own intuition. If you like science fiction and are sixteen plus years old, and also not squeamish about violence, I would say definitely give this book a shot!

If you’d like to grab a copy, you can here through my link!

Thanks for reading! Hope you’re doing well, and maybe don’t trust an injection that claims to make you immortal.

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.ca and affiliated sites.

Review: The Devil Whispered by Shawn Starkweather

3/5 Stars 413 Pages (in paper) Published February 1st 2021 by Shawn Starkweather Publishing Company

Honestly as great as the plot and the characters were in this book, I had the hardest time getting immersed into it. For whatever reason, I still haven’t figured it out over five hundred pages later, I Just couldn’t keep my attention on this book. Whether that’s a me problem or a book problem I’m not sure, but I do have these good things to say about it. If you’re looking for an action packed cyberpunk mystery novel mixed with military personnel, robotic limbs and internal computers, and crazy body mods and just crazy tech in general, than this is definitely something you should look into checking out next.

At the beginning of this book we find out main character, Jacobi, hunting down a man for some kind of mob boss. He finds him surrounded by drugs and girls and easily apprehends him, and brings him back to his father. This is just the beginning though, because the favour he gets in return will really help him out later in the book. What’s really going on here, Jacobi learns after visiting his friend in jail after he has brutally murdered his wife, is that someone seems to be hunting down the members of his old army team. But why would someone do that? Their names and team were all under lock and key, not just anyone would be able to have that information. But his friend says it wasn’t his fault and that someone made him do it. How could someone just control another person like that? All these questions and more are all wrapped up by the end of the book.

Out of all the characters I think I like Risa and his other friend with the robotic limbs the most. I read another review that says this book seemed sexist, and while that opinion is valid, I really didn’t get that vibe from it. I would say the vibes I got from this book were more military James Bond with all the cyberpunk goodness and crazy tech we love that comes along with that genre. The world around the characters wasn’t explained in depth, and honestly neither were the characters themselves, and maybe that might be why I had trouble really getting into it. That being said, though, I did enjoy it, and I don’t think I lost any time while I was reading it. It just took me longer than usual to get through it because of those things.

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Overall, If you’re looking for something exciting and action packed, with lots of tech and storylines within the bigger storyline, than this might be something you want to check out next. I would say that anyone aged sixteen and up would be able to read this, there’s not really any explicit scenes, and what very little sexual scenes there actually are in this book, I counted two, they’re glossed over very quickly and don’t get too in depth with them other than saying yeah, they did this. Which I appreciated. I don’t think that this is one of those kinds of books. The plot twists were exciting and everything weaved together really nicely in the end. And I’m left wishing I had an internal computer or robotic limbs, or those cool night vision mods that turn your eyes all black.

If you’d like to grab a copy, you can do so here!

And if you’d like to follow the author on Twitter, you can here!

Thanks for reading! Hope you’re doing well and staying safe.

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.ca and affiliated sites.

Book Birthday Review: Expiration Date by Mardine Perrins

4/5 Stars 281 pages
Published March 9th 2021 by Kat Biggie Press

A fantastic new twist on a futuristic dystopia, Expiration Date is set in a world that still looks very much like our own, but has long moved past it’s population and non-renewable resources problem, as well as the damage that we’ve caused to the planet. It’s moving in an upward direction and back on track to being a healthy world, and it has very slight tech upgrades, such as hover cars and holograms. That being said, it’s all thanks to something that changed the entire world as soon as they started showing up, expiration dates on every single human being born in the last century, telling the exact date when a person will die.

With expiration dates came mass hysteria, mostly because people didn’t know what they were at first. A blessing and a curse, knowing your exact death date can be a huge challenge. But somehow that scared people off from having an over abundance of children. No one knows where they came from or why, but it alone saved the planet from the kind of certain doom that we face in our own world, in real life. People mostly calmed down, and everything has been evolving since then. That being said, is it moral to know exactly when you and everyone around you will die? It won’t save you from genetic problems, and if you end up being sick, or having dementia, you’re still forced to live with those problems until you pass away.

This story follows two sisters, Elisa and Ashlei, and also a man named Claude, as they deep dive into why exactly there are expiration dates, and if there isn’t something disfunctional going on behind them. After  babies start being born with very short dates, I’m talking less than a week of being born, it really kicks into overdrive to really find out what’s going on. And what the three uncover is despicable, and like nothing they could have ever imagined.

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I had a good time reading this book. I thought the plot was very original, and even though the viewpoints of the characters bounced around quite a bit, I didn’t have any problems keeping up. I really enjoyed that we got to see a dystopia in the making, because I think that’s something we rarely get to read about in books like these. If the characters didn’t uncover what was going on, what would have happened to the world? I think it would have turned into one of those dystopias where everyone lives under a dome and people are so heavily regulated that they’re not able to really live. And I thought that was very unique and interesting. The characters were realistic, I had no problems believing that they were smart individuals that could exist outside of the book, and even though it’s not my new favourite, I did enjoy reading it. If you’re into scifi in a world like ours, I think you’ll really enjoy it too.

If you’d like to grab a copy, you can do so here.

And if you’d like to keep up with the author, you can here!

Thanks for reading! Hope you’re doing well and staying safe.

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.ca and affiliated sites.

Book Birthday Review: Fire and Cinder (Fairy Tales of the Magicorum #6) by Christina Bauer

Who could have guessed another Fairy Tales of the Magicorum book would be out so soon after the last? Not me! But I’m excited for it nonetheless. I couldn’t wait to see what our heroes would get up to this time, and wasted no time starting it, especially after the events of the last book. If you know me, you know I fully enjoy this series. It’s perfect for anyone looking for a quick read to break up the other books on your schedule, and doesn’t usually disappoint.

4/5 Stars 265 pages Published February 23rd 2021 by Monster House Books

Following Elle, Agatha, Alec and Jacoby in this book, we find Elle in her house eating pizza to cope with the loss of her boyfriend, Alec, who’s been transported into a magical gemstone prison by an evil fae. She feels like she can’t control her magic enough to go and save him, but knows she needs to do something, and in the meantime, she needs to take care of herself too. But after that, she accidentally sends herself back in time to see her mom and her in her childhood home. This sets off a chain of events that also sets the pace for the rest of the book.

Agatha, on the other hand, just wants to go back to her normal life but without her mother and sister, before she found out all the things she didn’t know about herself and her ties to the fae world, like the fact that she’s the last of a missing species and the only one who can save their world. She doesn’t mind the new obsession that Jacoby has developed with her, though, she even has started to like having him around. But she would never tell him that, of course.

The boys however are kind of backup characters for this book. I feel like the spotlight is mostly on the girls, occasionally showing what the boys are thinking to help the story move along. I really enjoyed reading this, and the ending! Wow. That’s all I have to say about that, this is a no spoiler review blog after all. But let me tell you, when the action starts, it really all goes down at once. Will he girls be able to save the fae world and the people that they care about? You’ll have to read to find out!

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This was a very easy and relaxing read for me, and I really enjoy getting thrown back into this series whenever there’s a new book out. The writing is funny and quirky, lots of silly little jokes tossed in there to liven it up, but when it comes down to it, there really are some important and serious things that happen in this book and those don’t take away from that. I think this was a very nice addition to the series, an I’m hoping for more Bryar Rose appearances in the future, maybe even another book from her point of view. And did I even say anything about how beautiful this cover is? Because I think it’s my favourite for the series so far! Like always I love the characters because of how silly and realistic they are despite their magic abilities and the obvious differences between our worlds, and I can’t wait to see what happens next.

If you’d like a copy, you can grab one here!

And if you’d like to keep up with the author, you can here on Twitter!

Thanks for reading! If you haven’t checked out my spot on the blog tour for this book, there’s an excerpt and all the book information you could possibly need here!

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.ca and affiliated sites.

The Other Couple by Cathryn Grant Review

3/5 Stars Edition
Published December 6th 2020

A book full of twists and turns, The Other Couple is a book that’s so mysterious it’s almost creepy. Now I’m into thriller’s and everything, but this book was really slow burn. For most of the plot, the characters really made sense in the world around them, but occasionally acted a lot differently than I expected, very irrationally. Not saying that people don’t act irrationally from time to time, but this was almost too irrational. Not my new favourite, this was a book I still enjoyed reading, and recommend to anyone looking for an interesting thriller to really help them step out of their comfort zone.

It starts off with Skye and Joe staking out their next potential victims. Con artists, they’re amazing at getting people to give them their money, or anything else they desire. That being said, Skye is clearly the brains of the two, and Joe being the threatening brawn. When they find their next endeavor, they’re not exactly what they seem to be, and in fact, marriage councillor Brad and his wife Maggie have some secrets of their own that may just interfere with their plan.

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After their vacation takes a turn for the worst, first with Skye and Joe joining their household for the duration of their vacation, and then with Joe falling off of their boat and drowning in Lake Tahoe, the three are confused at what to do next. That’s when Maggie’s past from before the vacation suddenly effects her present life very deeply. But it doesn’t end there. Overall, this book was exciting, but it’s just not my new favourite, and that’s okay. I didn’t really like how some of the characters acted under immense pressure, and although that’s not a big deal, it kind of left a bad taste in my mouth at times.

Overall, if you’re looking for something new and exciting to pull you out of your reading funk, or you’re really into books with no supernatural aspects, all thriller between the pages, and lots of marital problems, than this may be something you want to check out. Just be warned, there are some scenes of spousal abuse that may be triggering for some readers, including physical and emotional abuse.

If you’d like to grab a copy, you can do so here.

Thanks for reading! Hope you’re doing well and staying safe.

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.ca and affiliated sites.

Starfire Angels (Dark Angel Chronicles #1) by Melanie Nilles Review

4/5 Stars 172 pages
Published December 19th 2013 Prairie Star Publishing

You know how I get, I have a vision of a kind of book in my mind, and I just don’t feel right until I read it. Luckily, it was pretty easy for me to find an angel book in my library, and this one was so interesting I was easily able to dive right into it. A different take on the usual kind of archangel books I’ve read, this one contained a new species of aliens I’ve never read before, ones that look exactly like humans and are able to hide their huge angel wings to blend in. I really enjoyed reading it.

The main character is a girl named Raea, who was orphaned at five years old, but luckily taken in by her aunt and uncle, and two younger cousins. She’s always felt kind of off, but didn’t know why until the topics in this book came up. Turns out she’s actually part of an alien species, and the quiet creepy guy behind her is the only one that can help her. She’s a little immature about the entire situation, wanting to date the hot foreign guy, but what could you ask from a teenager who found out she has mystical powers and insanely huge angel wings? She eventually finds her footing just in time to save her secret.

There is a part that I didn’t really enjoy reading, and that is that there’s a memory that she’s trying to dig out of her brain just so she can know it. While I understand it, I don’t really know why it was added to the story, seeing as it wasn’t important, and I feel like it was just put in there to make you uncomfortable and hate the bad guy in the story more. I didn’t really trust or like him before that, and I feel like the trauma being brought up and just kind of thrown in there wasn’t necessary. Just warning you, if you get upset at the topic of sexual assault than just be warned that they do discuss it in this book. It’s pretty far in, though and it’s really at a time that you wouldn’t expect it.

The story was exciting and the characters were a little cringey at times, but I did enjoy reading it, and I’m interested in the next book after this. I’m hoping that we get to know more about Raea’s family’s home through the portal, and that we get to know more about the species in general. What their language is all about, and what their abilities are all about. Why they are the keepers of alien life forms in crystals and all that. I definitely recommend checking it out if you’re looking for an interesting book about angels to read, and you don’t mind young adult fiction.

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If you’d like to grab a copy, you can do so here, through my Amazon Associates link.

Thanks for reading! Hope you’re doing well and staying safe.

The Rising Storm (Paradigm #1) by Ceri A. Lowe Review

5/5 Stars 340 pages
Published April 4th 2018 by Bookouture

Wow, I knew this book would be right up my alley, I just didn’t know how much I would actually love it. And I really did love it. A new and exciting take on the well worn path of a young adult dystopia novel, I really couldn’t get enough. It very much gave me Fallout vibes, and if you know me, you know I’m obsessed with that game. I couldn’t ask for more from it, and I can’t wait to get my hands on the next book in the trilogy.

Following a fifteen year old boy named Carter, we see his life unfold as he’s forced underground to pay his duties to the community, to freeze himself until they need him sometime in the next twenty years. He’s giving up what family he has left, his grandfather, after his parents passed away, and really everyone he knows. But he knows it’s what he has to do for the good of the world that he lives in. What he doesn’t know, is that someone’s pregnant with his children. And the world he thaws into is much more dysfunctional than the one he was frozen in fifteen years before. And most of all, that they think he’s their only hope for change.

It also follows Alice, a child who’s stuck in the middle of a devastatingly changing world almost ninety years before Carter’s frozen. She’s left alone in the middle of a flooding world, forced to fend for herself until help eventually comes in the form of the Community that eventually blossoms into the world that Carter knows. The two children are woven together in rotating chapters, and like I said at the beginning, I really couldn’t get enough of this book. I powered through it like it was nothing, and it really makes me want to read more dystopia novels, like now.

Exciting and unique, the thing I loved most about this book was how the two children’s stories were put together. They seem very different on the surface, but the more we get to know about them, the more we realize that the stories are a lot more similar than we originally thought. Both go through hardships, and both want what’s best for the community, but they have differing opinions that get them into trouble with the people around them. Originally one was sort of a rebel against the community and the other was everything that they wanted, but as we learn, they turn into something else entirely and find themselves in completely different places by the end of the book. I don’t think I would change anything about it at all, and I’m eager to start the next book in the trilogy as soon as I get a chance. One thing I was confused about however, was if everything was horrifically flooded for the better part of five years, wouldn’t all the houses be horribly water damaged? Or did it just storm and not horribly flood? Anyways, not important. I loved it, and that’s it.

If you’re into young adult dystopia novels with a new take on the subject, than I definitely think you should give this one a chance. Who knows? You might love it just as much as I did. You can grab a copy here, through my Amazon Associates link.

And if you’d like to keep up with the author, you can here, on Twitter!

Thanks for reading! Hope you’re doing well.

The Reader (Immortal Series #1) by M.K. Harkins Review

5/5 Stars 262 pages
Published July 2018

If you haven’t noticed, I’ve really been into these books about people with special powers, immortal or not. And this book has fit perfectly with that mood I’ve had lately. A story about people who can read minds, but with a few twists, one of which being that their people live in an underground compound build into a mountain. How amazing would that be to explore? I wouldn’t even mind living underground, if that were the case. This book was everything I wanted it to be and more.

Ann has lost her memory. Waking up on a beach with a face full of sand and a bullet wound, she’s devastated by her loss, and has no idea what to do from here. That is, until two guys show up to help her. Though she doesn’t know them, and a voice inside her head says that she can trust only one of them, she’s compelled to go with them to what they call their compound, a mansion built into the side of a mountain and surrounded by fake houses. Little does she know this is the easiest thing that will happen to her from now on.

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Turns out, she’s a Reader, an immortal being who can read minds. And not only that, but she may just be The Lost One, a person that might as well be mythical for all anyone knows. A mix of the three immortal races, The Seers, who have been extinct due to war, The Jacks, an evil group bent on destroying the world to get what they want and who have to switch bodies every fifty years to keep their lives going, and of course The Readers. But she’s not convinced that she’s even a Reader, despite everyone around her knowing. That is, until she escapes from her amazing prison, and out into the real world where the humans are, and some of the Jacks are able to track her down. Will she regain her memory and put a stop to the evil group?

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Like I said, this book was everything I wanted it to be and more. I wasn’t quite sure what I was getting myself into when I started it, but once I read the description again, I knew I was going to be hooked. This book is exciting and very mysterious, with characters I love and characters I hate, and really just a story that kept me guessing. I read it in less than a day, and once I found out that there was a second book to this duology, I knew I would have to get my hands on it. My favourite character was probably Lucy, because she’s just so nice and upbeat and just the perfect best friend. If you love books about people with mysterious powers and immortal bodies, than this is a book you should pick up next.

If you’d like to grab a copy, you can do so here through my Amazon Associates link.

Here’s a link to the author’s Twitter, if you’d like to keep up with them!

Thanks for reading! Hope you’re doing well and staying safe.

Dracula, Motherf**ker! by Alex de Campi, & Erica Henderson Review

Need something short and sweet to fill a gap in your reading? Than this is the book you should grab. Bloody, hypnotic and attention grabbing, Dracula, Motherf**ker is really just perfect, in my opinion. I powered through it very quickly, it being only about eighty pages, and I’d love to have a copy of it on my shelf, just to have, you know?

4/5 Stars 72 pages
Published October 13th 2020 by Image Comics

Dracula’s brides have been around for just as long as the big man himself has. Following a corpse photographer, he stumbles on something he’s going to with he never did. The brides are out for blood and revenge, and they won’t let anyone get in their way of their plan, to take Dracula out. After years and years of him using them to steal their power, making him think he wants them and then tossing them aside like they’re nothing, they’re sick of it.

Overall, I thought that the story was short but really interesting and gory. Just what I love in a comic book. I found that the art style was beautifully hypnotic, and perfectly captured the story. I’d love to have this on my bookshelf just so I could look at it again. Even if you don’t like gory comics, I think that you should check this out if you think it’s interesting, because I really loved it.

If you’d like to grab a copy, you can get one here through my Amazon Associates link!

And if you’d like to keep up with the creators, you can do so here!

Alex De Campi

Erica Henderson

Thanks for reading! Hope you’re doing well and staying safe.