March 2019 Favourites

Hey! I know I just did my February favourites a couple weeks ago, but I thought I would get a good start for this month and get it done early. So here it is, my favourites for March of this year.

 

In no particular order,

1. Infinite Dark, Vol. 1 by Ryan Cady, Andrea Mutti & K. Michael Russell

The universe ended, but humanity survived. And for years, the passengers and crew of the vessel Orpheus found the endless void between realities to be a surprisingly peaceful home.

Then they found a body; bloodied, brutalized, and surrounded by inscrutable runes. As Security Director Deva Karrell investigates the Orpheus’ first murder, she’ll come face to face with a horror from beyond the confines of time itself…

Collects INFINITE DARK #1-4

 

2. Shifting Horizons (The Denounced Series #2) by S.J. Sherwood

In a future divided into Secular and Non-Secular Quadrants, a crime punishable by death is to cross Quandrants and become a Dedounced.

Pod Fifteen has escaped Ilse’s cruel regime only to fall intothe hands of a strange Nomadic Tribe. Their charismatic leader, Omar, begins to fill Ned’s mind with ideas about his destiny. A possible future that puts the Pod’s hard-fought friendships to the test, cuts loyalties to the bone and further exposes character flaws. Nobody is sure who they can trust and what they should do next, but Ned is convinced he must travel home if he has any chance of fulfilling his truth and changing the course of history.

 

3. The Manic Pixie Dream Boy Improvement Project by Lenore Appelhans

Riley lives in TropeTown, where everyone plays stock roles in novels. Riley, a Manic Pixie Dream Boy, is sent to group therapy after going off-script. Riley knows that breaking the rules again could get him terminated, yet he feels there must be more to life than recycling the same clichés for readers’ entertainment. Then he meets Zelda, a Manic Pixie Dream Girl (Geek Chic subtype), and falls head over heels in love. Zelda’s in therapy too, along with several other Manic Pixies. But TropeTown has a dark secret, and if Riley and his fellow Manic Pixies don’t get to the bottom of it, they may all be terminated.

 

 

4. Beautiful Bad by Annie Ward 

In the most explosive and twisted psychological thriller since The Woman in the Window, a beautiful marriage turns beautifully bad.

Things that make me scared: When Charlie cries. Hospitals and lakes. When Ian drinks vodka in the basement. ISIS. When Ian gets angry… That something is really, really wrong with me.

Maddie and Ian’s romance began with a chance encounter at a party overseas; he was serving in the British army and she was a travel writer visiting her best friend, Jo. Now almost two decades later, married with a beautiful son, Charlie, they are living the perfect suburban life in Middle America. But when a camping accident leaves Maddie badly scarred, she begins attending writing therapy, where she gradually reveals her fears about Ian’s PTSD; her concerns for the safety of their young son, Charlie; and the couple’s tangled and tumultuous past with Jo.

From the Balkans to England, Iraq to Manhattan, and finally to an ordinary family home in Kansas, sixteen years of love and fear, adventure and suspicion culminate in The Day of the Killing, when a frantic 911 call summons the police to the scene of a shocking crime.

 

and last but not least,

5. War Flower: My Life after Iraq by Brooke King

Brooke King has been asked over and over what it’s like to be a woman in combat, but she knows her answer is not what the public wants to hear. The answers people seek lie in the graphic details of war—the sex, death, violence, and reality of it all as she experienced it. In her riveting memoir War Flower, King breaks her silence and reveals the truth about her experience as a soldier in Iraq. Find out what happens when the sex turns into secret affairs, the violence is turned up to eleven, and how King’s feelings for a country she knew nothing about as a nineteen-year-old become more disturbing to her as a thirty-year-old mother writing it all down before her memories fade into oblivion.

The story of a girl who went to war and returned home a woman, War Flower gathers the enduring remembrances of a soldier coming to grips with post-traumatic stress disorder. As King recalls her time in Iraq, she reflects on what violence does to a woman and how the psychic wounds of combat are unwittingly passed down from mother to children. War Flower is ultimately a profound meditation on what it means to have been a woman in a war zone and an unsettling exposé on war and its lingering aftershocks. For veterans such as King, the toughest lesson of service is that in the mind, some wars never end—even after you come home.

 

And that’s it! Another month of books have come and gone, and I can’t wait to see what my favourites are this month. Have you read any of these books? What do you think of them even if you haven’t? Let me know below!

Decimation: A Dreamworld Short Story by Will O’Shire Review

Decimation: A Dreamworld Short Story by Will O’Shire 2/5 Stars 16 pages
Published November 27th 2018

Decimation is yet another very short, short story from Will O’shire, and this one just wasn’t for me. I’m not sure if it’s part of his other series, but this book was just very confusing and too short to really give me any information about anything. Following a character named Minos, we see them in first person as they first help a woman with her groceries, and then runs through the forest to maybe a caste or something? As an intense battle breaks out.

Though this book is filled with interesting creatures like dragons, goblins and yeti, it just wasn’t something that I loved reading. I couldn’t really get into it, and the story just jumped around too quickly in it’s short span. Though I did find a couple of the other short stories interesting, this just wasn’t one that will be my favourite.

The book is available here, and here’s a link to the author’s Twitter, if you’d like to keep up with him.

https://amzn.to/2JVRhiO

https://twitter.com/willoshire

Thanks for reading!

Argony by John Akers Review

Argony by John Akers 4/5 Stars 28 pages
Published December 9th 2018 by Tech Noir Press

Interested in John Akers’s books? Than Argony is the perfect thing to read, if you want just a little trial of something he’s written to start off with. This one in particular, is a first person short story with a nice cover. The character is inside a video game called 4real, and on trial for killing a “normie”.

 

Though I can’t tell you who the character is, where they’re from or what they look like, I can tell you that they’re really strong, have some kind of skeleton upgrade that makes them almost invincible, insane Zen powers, and that they never shot Nancy Chimera with a plasma rifle, and that they’ve never even seen one until today.

 

This book is really interesting, and makes me wonder what else the author has in store. I definitely want to check out his other book, and hope that it’s as exciting as this one.

 

This short story is available here, and here’s a link to the author’s Twitter, if you’d like to keep up with him.

Thanks for reading!

Crowded, Vol. 1 by Christopher Sebela, Ro Stein, & Ted Brandt Review

Crowded, Vol. 1 by Christopher Sebela, Ro Stein, & Ted Brandt 5/5 Stars 160 pages
Publishing date: March 26th 2019 by Image Comics 

“Crowded” is another graphic novel with a girl who has hair like me, and I’ll never get tired of seeing it. Charlie is known better as “The Million Dollar Girl”, and then later as “The Two Million Dollar Girl”. One of the highest ranking paid assassinations on the app Reapr, which allows people to crowdfund enough money in the hopes that someone will kill her for that money. In the first issue, we see her meeting up with Vita, a female body guard, in a restaurant.

 

Vita’s kind of an uptight type, who goes to bed early, and only works when she feels like she’s prepared. She says that she didn’t say she could sit with her at the table, but Charlie tells her that she’s paying her, and that she should relax. If that doesn’t set the tone of their entire relationship throughout the book, I don’t know what does. Moments later, a man pulls out a gun in attempt to shoot Charlie, but Vita shoots him without even pausing. Charlie tells Vita why they’re there.

 

It started out like any other normal day, Charlie, working her many jobs through apps and just doing her thing. She likes to rent out things she owns for money, like her car and her clothes, but she also does other things for money, like walking dogs and babysitting, and even tutoring calculus. My favourite though, is when an old man books her to hang out and feed the pigeons with him. Who wouldn’t want that job? She hooks up with strangers and sneaks out before they wake up, but that day everything changed. Someone started shooting at her from across the street. And they’re only in it for the money.

 

This book is one that’s exciting from the first few pages. I really enjoyed the colourful art and the story itself, it’s not like anything I’ve read lately. My favourite character of course is Charlie, but also Vita, because they’re so different from each other that really work well together. Of course, how could I not like the girl with hair like me? The story is full of gunfights, explosions, and Vita chasing after Charlie. She often wonders if she wants to get killed, but I think that Charlie just wants to live her life while she still can, especially when there’s a hit taken out on her. I also really liked the different art styles in the variant covers, and between issues. I really liked reading this, and I’m glad I got the chance to check it out. If you think it’s something you would like, I definitely recommend you check it out too.

 

The book is available here, and here’s a link to the creator’s Twitter accounts, if you’d like to keep up with them.

https://twitter.com/xtop

https://twitter.com/RosyTintedSpecs?lang=en

https://twitter.com/ten_bandits?lang=en

Thanks for reading!

Umbra: Dimension Drift Prequels #2 (Dimension Drift 0.2) by Christina Bauer Review

Umbra: Dimension Drift Prequels #2 (Dimension Drift 0.2) by Christina Bauer 4/5 Stars 150 pages
Published March 26th 2019 by Monster House Books

Have you read Scythe and fallen in love with the characters like the rest of us? Then I’m sure you’re ready for the next prequel installment, Umbra. Told first person from Thorne’s point of view, we really dig deep into his backstory, and get to know him and his alien race a little better. I couldn’t wait to check this book out, and I’m glad I got the chance to.

 

With a really interesting looking cover, this mostly alien book is filled with talk of other dimensions, including what it’s like to be the Prince of an alien race. This book begins nine minutes before a version of earth different from the one that Meimi is on in the first book could be torn apart. Thorne’s job, is to find the schism that’s causing the problem.

 

The Umbran people are very similar to humans, with two big differences. Their ability to turn blue, and the tiny cybernetic organisms that make up their very being. A short but interesting read, I’m excited to see what comes in the first official novel of the series, and intrigued to learn more about not only the Umbran characters, but the Human characters as well. I definitely recommend checking out this book if you’re looking for something exciting and different in the realm of young adult fiction, that includes aliens and alternate dimensions.

 

The book is available here, and here’s a link to the author’s Twitter, if you’d like to keep up with her.

Thanks for reading!

The Magician: A Dark Urban Fantasy Short Story (The Fae Awakening) by Will O’Shire Review

The Magician: A Dark Urban Fantasy Short Story (The Fae Awakening) by Will O’Shire 4/5 Stars 22 pages
Published January 16th 2019

In the next short story installment of “The Fae Awakening” series, this book follows a strange man made of smoke in third person. We meet Ethan, a real life magician, not one of those trick magicians, and we see him interact with the man. Out of all of the stories in this series, this is one of the ones I liked the most.

 

Though these are very quick, well under fifty pages each, I really got to see what the strange man was about in this book, and I didn’t feel sucked out of the story by the writing. I’m intrigued to see what happens in the next one I read, and I’m actually a little excited to check it out. If you like short, to the point, fantasy stories, than you should check this one out. I don’t think it matters if you read the short stories out of order, so you could pick this one up at any time.

 

The book is available here, and here’s a link to the author’s Twitter, if you’d like to keep up with him.

Thanks for reading!

The World That Remains by Matthew S. Cox Review

The World That Remains by Matthew S. Cox 4/5 Stars 250 pages
Published March 15th 2019 by Division Zero Press 

Have you read Evergreen? Did you finish that book wanting more to the story, or to know the characters better? Than you need to check out this book, because even though it’s not as exciting as the first, it fills all of those wants and more. Again, following Harper in first person as she adjusts to her new life and family, it shows the daily struggles that imagine one might go through in the apocalypse.

 

Though I didn’t like this one as much as the first, I think that this book is a really nice follow up. The world that she lives in hasn’t changed much in the last three months since the end of Evergreen, but there are still problems that the town faces. Not only is food scarce while they’re starting up the farm, but people often try to raid the food storage building, and there’s still the worry about this Shadow Man that they keep hearing so much about from one particular child. Harper struggles as she tries to get over the loss of her parents but still stay strong for her kid sister and adopted child. She also has to go with the military that they’ve created to abandoned cities for supplies, which is dangerous.

 

I don’t really have a favourite part, but I did still enjoy the book. It’s easy to fall into, and easy to read. I’m glad I got the chance to read it, and though you could read this one without reading the first one, I don’t think that it has the same feel to it, and I’m not sure it would be as interesting without knowing the story of Evergreen. I’m looking forward to seeing what author Matthew S. Cox comes up with next.

 

The book is available here, and here’s a link to the author’s Twitter, if you’d like to keep up with him.

Thanks for reading!

Love Bees: A Family Guide to Help Keep Bees Buzzing by Vanessa Amaral-Rogers Review

Love Bees: A Family Guide to Help Keep Bees Buzzing by Vanessa Amaral-Rogers 5/5 Stars 48 pages
Published March 19th 2019 by Leaping Hare Press

With the Bee population on the decline, the world may begin to change for the worse, even more so than it already has. Love Bees is a way to help rebuild their population, and maybe if everyone does what this book says, help the planet in a major way. Inside this book is an easy to follow, though directed towards children, very informative book that benefits everyone who reads it. So what are you waiting for? The bee population won’t fix itself.

 

Folded in a stunning cover, this book tells you everything from how to identify the different kinds of bees, to what kind of flowers they like to pollinate the most, and even how to build a bee hotel, an a wildflower window box. It gives easy to follow directions, and really interesting ways to help out the environment both on your property and out in the world.

 

One of every three mouthfuls of food comes from the work that bees do every single day of their lives, and that’s not something we should take advantage of. Not all bees are black and yellow, but most bees do the same jobs, and they’re struggling. So please, plant some flowers and maybe even pick up this book.

 

It’s available here, and here’s a link to the author’s Twitter, if you’d like to keep up with them.

Thanks for reading!

Infinite Dark, Vol. 1 by Ryan Cady, Andrea Mutti & K. Michael Russell Review

Infinite Dark, Vol. 1 by Ryan Cady, Andrea Mutti & K. Michael Russell 5/5 Stars 128 pages
Published March 19th 2019 by Image Comics

The first thing I noticed about this book, was the cover, and the beautiful art. I loved just the aesthetic in general, and I think that this is just a really well done book. Inside tells a story of humans trying to get out of their routine, go to a new place, and failing, but finding something completely unexpected and even hard to imagine after they’ve seen it. It’s about a misunderstanding, and labeling mental illness. It’s everything I wanted it to be and more.

 

“Infinite Dark Volume 1” begins with a routine simulation therapy session. The subject, is security director Deva Harrell, the main character in the story, and the person that keeps the entire ship together. The AI asks if she’s comfortable, and of course she’s not, but she tells it to proceed anyways. They pick up right where they left off, talking about the memories at the forefront of her mind. Automatically, she says the end of the universe. She’s soaring through space on an almost dead ship with no hope of being saved. Of course, Deva’s my favourite character. Not only because she has coloured hair and is such a strong lead for the story, but because I just think she’s exactly what they people on the ship need.

 

See, tons of fleet’s have tried and failed to save the ship The Orpheus, and they’ve given up hope. What started as a mission to save humanity has seemed  to have doomed the team, and there’s nothing to do but accept it. They’re stuck in a vacuum, slowly freezing to death in their ship. Though, that wasn’t what destroyed a lot of the fleets. The last one exploded, overclocking their engines just trying to make it to The Orpheus. Deva thinks that she’s a failure, but the therapy simulation says otherwise; there’s still people working and living on the ship. Something happens, though when they go into a place called the dark sector. They see something that they’re haunted by, and that many people don’t even know is real or not.

 

I loved this book from the first page to the last page, and I’m really happy to see that there’s more to the story. I couldn’t get enough of it. I think you would love this if you’re into comics about space, aliens, and have beautiful art. It really reminds me of a lot of the alien themed movies that came out in the last few years, and that’s right up my alley. I can’t wait to snag a copy for myself, I know it’ll be a beautiful addition to my bookshelf. Definitely check it out if you get the chance.

 

The book is available here, and here are links to the creator’s Twitter accounts, if you’d like to keep up with them.

 

https://twitter.com/rycady?lang=en

https://twitter.com/andreamutti9

https://twitter.com/kmichaelrussell

 

Thanks for reading!

What Makes Girls Sick and Tired by Lucile de Pesloüan, & Genevieve Darling Review

What Makes Girls Sick and Tired by Lucile de Pesloüan, & Genevieve Darling 5/5 Stars 48 pages
Published March 18th 2019 by Second Story Press

What Makes Girls Sick and Tired is a book that I think everyone should read, if they want an insight to why feminists exist. Though the world has changed a lot for woman’s rights, there’s still a long ways to go, and this book explains exactly why. With quirky purple comic like art, this is a powerful book and I feel compelled to buy multiple copies, and hand them out to people who may need to read it, which is probably a lot of people. After all, we can only change the world one step at a time, and this is one of those steps.

 

At barely fifty pages, this is a perfect read for if you only have a short time to spare, and want to get into some non fiction and understand the world a little better, and the problems that women face every day, just living. I would say that no matter what, you should check it out if you get the chance.

 

This book is available here.

Thanks for reading!