Book Review: Parallel Planets by James E Lee

3/5 Stars 180 pages, Published December 27th 2017 by Booksgosocial

This is the story of Tom, a small town sheriff, and Julia, a doctor in the making. They meet later in life, fall in love, and live the rest of their lives together in perfect harmony. That is, until half way through the book, when the aliens are introduced.

And when I say half way, I really mean that my kindle app literally said 50%. Up until then, I wasn’t so sure where the story was headed. It seemed like it was a small town murder mystery kind of vibe, and it morphed into a scifi adventure right when I was wondering if it was for me or not. And I really loved that.

Written in a very straight forward was, I enjoyed how unique it was, but I also felt like it’s written in such a passive way, that I didn’t really even realize when the action was happening at some parts, and had to go back and re-read.

Definitely an interesting and enjoyable read, but it’s not my new favourite. But not every book is going to be exactly what I want, and that’s okay. I think it took too long to get into the scifi parts of the story, and I got a little bored waiting for it to show up. Overall, I think that many people would like this book, but it’s just not for me. If you like scifi and small town mysteries, than check it out for yourself!

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

Thanks for reading! Hope you’re having a great day, and you don’t get abducted by aliens, unless that’s something that you want.

Book Review: Spacevault by G.W. Smith

Although this was an interesting idea, as a book, it wasn’t really for me. Set on world that’s doomed to perish because of an asteroid, Xel, the main character is destined to save it. Unfortunately there is also insta-love, and too little description for me to be able to follow all the different species of characters in the story. Basically, it wasn’t for me.

2/5 Stars 117 pages
Published January 21st 2012

The beginning of the story starts with a mass gathering of scientists. In the next fifty years, asteroid “Black Rock” is going to come and mess up their entire planet’s orbit by coming too close, dooming their home. They’ve been working on a solution, a way to teleport to a safe location, but nothing has really become of it because they would have to move their entire population. After ten years, they’re running out of options. So they’ve come up with a new idea, taking the world’s most intelligent people and children, giving them special schooling so they may go on to save their people. And Xel is one of those children.

Was he a child or was he a teen? Was he fully grown? These are some of the questions I have. How did he change his relationships with the other characters in the story so fast? Why were the children basically test dummies? There are just so many things I didn’t really understand, and I couldn’t really stay invested in the book.

I think that although I thought the book was confusing, not everyone will think that. It does have a great and unique scifi base to build off of. If you think you would enjoy it, check it out!

Thanks for reading. Hope you’re doing well and there’s no asteroids headed for our own planet!

Book Blitz & Excerpt: Of Gilded Flesh by Gordon Gravley

Of Gilded Flesh
Gordon Gravley
Publication date: June 22nd 2021
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Science Fiction

Clockmaker Josef Kronecker makes more than just clocks.

In his study in Salzburg, he crafts lifesaving clockwork appendages for clients, including a famous pianist, a count who loves to dance, and his very own assistant, Anna, who suffered a harrowing attack before coming to work at Kronecker’s Timepieces.

When Josef meets Klara, a beautiful party attendee, he’s entranced and soon becomes unknowingly entrapped in a web of lies. His infatuation positions him as the victim of a royal bully, who presents an impossible challenge and requests an unthinkable sacrifice should Josef run out of time.

While Josef falls for Klara and is held to a deadline he can’t possibly make, Anna keeps the shop afloat as she faces her past trauma, proving that the number of limbs does not make a person whole, but rather the will to live.

Sustaining life is Josef’s calling, but now it’s his life on the line. As the clock ticks down, he realizes that while infatuation is a powerful thing, love is deeper and sometimes goes unseen, and it seems adopting Anna’s unwavering will to live is the way to survive.

Honest, inventive, and both heartbreaking and heartwarming, OF GILDED FLESH is a captivating story about resilience and how much we have to live for.

Goodreads / Amazon

EXCERPT:

The clinking of tools and the orange light of candles trail from the workroom in the back of the shop. Anna enters the space through the open curtain. Expecting to see Josef hovering over Duke Brunner’s artificial heart, she’s surprised to find the clockmaker tinkering with the mechanical boy, Joop, instead. Josef inserts the Rainbow Moonstone-and-marble balls into its vacant eye sockets.

The clockmaker leans back and moves a burning candle from one side of Joop’s head to the other. “Come see,” he says.

Anna moves to Josef’s side—close to him, but not too close.

“They catch the light with such brilliance,” he says. “Thank you, Anna.”

He reaches for her hand, yet she finds herself pulling away. Piano music comes from the other side of the shop and hovers between the two of them. Josef gives a curious look.

“Pascal is here already?”

“He came by last night…and never left.”

Josef turns to her, taking in the warmth she emits like a gently burning hearth. “I see.” He turns away and disappears into the darkness of the shop.

Anna moves closer to Joop and rests her left hand beside him. She lowers herself to a stool.

“Oh, Joop. What have I done?”

The boy stares vacantly back as a tear rolls down her cheek.

“I killed a man. He was so very horrible—a demon—but who am I to pass judgement and execution? My vengeance has made me no better.”

Another tear falls.

“I’m worse, even. For I’ve gone and lain myself with a man I do not love.”

Joop’s hands slips from his lap and rests upon hers. The comforting, humanlike gesture from the unhuman boy sparks a faint grin to her lips and then a flood of tears.

“And worse still…I want to again.”

Author Bio:

Gordon Gravley has been making up stories all his life. As a child, they would take the shape of rudimentary comic books, and Super-8 movies. As he was drawn to stage-acting in high school his stories became one-act plays, and then feature-length screenplays – none of which ever saw the light of the big screen.

It wasn’t until his thirties that he finally decided to take the plunge, and like a real writer he made his stories into, well…stories. And just like a real writer, his efforts garnished multiple rejection letters. Twenty years later, those efforts would culminate into his first self-published novel, Gospel for the Damned.

Born in Phoenix, Arizona, Gordon moved around – California; Colorado; Alaska; Northern Arizona – before eventually settling in Seattle, Washington. Having called the Northwest his home since 1998, he doesn’t expect to be moving elsewhere anytime soon. There, he continues to make up stories, write novels, and live with his wife and son.

Subscribe to the author’s monthly newsletter, “from…Another Writer”, via his website http://www.gordongravley.com.

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Book Review: Paradigm by Helen Stringer

5/5 Stars 396 pages
Published July 13th 2013 by Mediadrome Press

In a fully established yet still broken down post apocalyptic world, Sam has been alone for a long time. Full of gut wrenching action and badass characters, this book easily became my new favourite. Very different beginnings and endings, the story is seamlessly blended in the middle. If you like post apocalyptic, young adult, science fiction books, this might be just what you need to pick up next.

Sam’s only friend in the world is Nathan, a boy he picked up one day about the same age as him. He usually has rules about not doing those things, but I think it has to be a lonely life, and it weighs down on him a lot. So now it’s just two teens fighting to survive day to day, until they decide to go into the city for supplies to trade, so that they can keep travelling. On the way they meet Alma, an insanely strong warrior badass teen girl who just happens to save Sam’s life. But there’s more to Sam than meets the eye, after all. He gets really bad headaches being in the city and just around a lot of people in general. The pills that he takes to suppress them would knock anyone else out. And maybe just also the fact that he can create a mini EMP from his own body.

These events, among many, many others, really set the pace for the entire book, making each chapter more intriguing than the last. Once I started it, I knew very quickly that it was going to be something that was perfect for me. There was just something about this book that made me obsessed with it, you know? Reading it just made me feel really good, through the good times and the bad, violent times. This book really just had a spark to it.

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My favourite characters were, of course, Sam, Alma and her razor blade hair, Carolyn Bast just because of how evil she was. and of course, the old man living in the abandoned observatory. Something about him really just speaks to me. Overall, I really just enjoyed this book thoroughly. The beginning and the end are so different from each other. You really think it’s headed in one direction, and it pulls you in the complete opposite way. What more could you ask for? Definitely one of my new favourites, and if you’re looking or an amazing spin on the classic “Teen finds out he’s different and has to save the world” story, this will be perfect for you too!

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

Thanks for reading! I hope you’re doing well!

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Book Review: The End of Men by Christina Sweeney-Baird

5/5 Stars 416 pages
Published April 27th 2021 by Doubleday Canada

A book about a very unique end of the world as we know it kind of situation, we get to see everything happening through a multitude of different women. From reporters and doctors to stay at home mothers, and everything in between, all of it just really works well together. When a modern day plague takes out most of the world’s population of men, women are forced to stand up tall and take the world’s problems into their own hands, or face something worse, complete extinction.

After the first cases are discovered by her in her own workplace, Amanda is cast aside as an unhinged woman, ignored by her peers and bosses and health care professionals. This causes the virus to spiral out of control. But by the time that everyone else realizes that she was right, it’s much too late. We basically get to watch the world fall apart from Europe and eventually everywhere else in the world, in first person, as they struggle to put everything back together and right the world again, while also struggling through the loss of all the men and boys in their lives.

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I think that this was a very well put together and interesting book with lifelike characters, the makings for a really great book. Everyone’s just trying to survive this huge loss and put the world back together, and I couldn’t put it down. I couldn’t wait to see what was going to happen next. Of course I would love a new take on an apocalypse book, though. So if you’re a mature reader and think that you would love this, check it out! Who knows? You might love it just as much as I did.

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

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

Thanks for reading! I hope you have a great day.

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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.

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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.

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Review: Villainous by Stonie Williams, Jef Sadzinski, Giovanna T Orozco, & Chris Fernandez

A unique take on a superhero comic book, Villainous is an exciting and very interesting story to read. Following a girl who looks like a reptile, tail, scales, claws and all, she finds her way through the world as she works toward her goal, being a superhero. But she really doesn’t know what she’s in for, and honestly neither did I. A beautifully done book, I really enjoyed reading it from start to finish.

4/5 Stars 112 pages
Published May 4th 2021 by Mad Cave Studios

Matilda is a girl who’s excited to start her apprenticeship with the local superhero troop, The Coalition. But it’s not exactly what she expected. Mostly doing gopher errands, she feels like her new identity as Rep-Tilly is hidden in the shadows. But things turn around quickly for her when she finds out that they don’t just save people, they also kill the people that they deem bad enough to kill. And she’s not sure how she feels about that. She just wants to be a hero, and heroes don’t kill people, right? That’s until they set her up as a terrorist to the world for finding out their big secret.

This book was an exciting story of how things can go wrong at the worst time, and people aren’t always who you think they are. I really enjoyed getting to know the characters, and I feel like things wrapped up pretty well at the end of the book. I’d love to know more about them and their world, but you know, it’s just one graphic novel, and there’s only so much story that you can pack into it. I feel like the art really fit the storytelling as well. Definitely check it out if you get the chance, and if you like superheroes.

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

And if you’d like to follow some of the creators on Twitter, you can here!

Stonie Williams

Giovanna T Orozco

Jef Sadzinski

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

Book Blitz: Code (Isan #4) by Mary Ting

Code
Mary Ting
(Isan, #4)
Published by: Vesuvian Books
Publication date: April 20th 2021
Genres: Dystopian, Science Fiction, Young Adult

Behind enemy lines, new soldiers will emerge, and unexpected heroes will rise.

Ava is a prisoner. And she is not the only rebel held hostage at ISAN’s secret compound. As she plans an escape, the lives of the rebel prisoners are in her hands, along with those she thought were dead.

Rhett and his team desperately search for Ava while one of the Remnant Council joins forces with another network looking for the creator of the Helix serum. And time is running out. Mr. Novak has been secretly creating an army called CODE, and what he plans for Ava will mean a permanent end to the rebels–and her.

Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

—

EXCERPT:

I should have landed on him, but instead I dropped to the floor on my hands and knees like a wounded deer. An electrical sensation zapped through my middle and wrapped around me like invisible arms, holding me in place. Hundreds of needles pricked me all at once.

Excruciating pain seared from head to toe. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t even blink. I had been wounded many times on missions, but nothing I’d felt in ISAN compared to what had just hit me.

Immobile, a foot from my monster of a brother, I’d never felt so vulnerable. My muscles simply shut down. A whimper escaped me, but it could have been only in my head. Worse, a tear slid down my cheek. I felt humiliated beyond measure.

“Aw, sis. Are you crying? Does it hurt?” Gene took his hand out of his pocket and showed me a metal trinket, a circle about the size of his thumb.

“I thought it was best to have it handy in case you lost control.” He came dangerously closer and lowered, his warm breath brushing the shell of my ear. “Now you know, sis. I can contain you. You might want to show me some respect if you don’t want to be on the ground, helpless and weak. I might accidentally hurt you. We don’t want that do we?”

Oh, the pain. Every tiny movement—every blink—hurt so much.

He ran a knuckle down my cheek to wipe away another teardrop, and then grazed his index finger slowly across my neck, savoring my weakness.

“Next time it won’t be so soft,” he said. “You should get some rest. You look like hell.”

I screamed in my head. Peering up under my eyelashes, I watched him walk toward the sliding door. I wanted to rip out his throat, stomp on his heart, but I couldn’t move. Even a fraction of movement felt like a knife slitting deeper into my spine.

I couldn’t win. At least not this time. But I would find a way. There had to be a way.

Gene’s back to me, he held up that metal circle trinket and clicked. Just as the door blended into the wall, he released me. I thumped my head on the tile floor and wept for Brooke and the rebels who had died because of my stupid mistake.

Groaning, I crawled like a worm, my knees and elbows digging across to get to the rug, each movement agony. I refused to lie on the cold ground like I was nothing.

I’d never felt so small. No—I had, when my foster father beat me. Where was he now? Locked up. That would be Gene’s fate, too.

Just you wait, big brother. Just you wait. Karma is a bitch.

Author Bio:

International Bestselling, Award-Winning Author Mary Ting writes soulful, spellbinding stories that excite the imagination and captivate readers all over the world. Her books run a wide range of genres: science fiction, fantasy, and swoon worthy stories. Her storytelling talents have won her a devoted legion of fans and garnered critical praise.

Mary was born in Seoul Korea and resides in Southern California with her husband, two children, and two dogs—Mochi and Mocha. She enjoys oil painting and making jewelry. Becoming an author was a way to grieve the death of her beloved grandmother. After realizing she wanted to become a full-time author, she retired from teaching after twenty years.

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Review: Dare to Resist (Parallel World #1) by Christine Kersey

4/5 Stars 292 pages
Published April 26th 2018 by Sapphire Creek Press

Though I haven’t read very many books about parallel universes, the ones that I have read have been amazing, and that’s why I’m actively seeking them out for future reading. I did feel a little bit too old for this book due to how young the main character is, but honestly it wasn’t that big of a deal, and I still was able to enjoy it. I just thought that she was a bit bratty at times. Not a world with flashy portals to indicate the change, this book told the story of a teenage girl who’s mad at her family and runs away, and mysteriously finds herself in a completely different world when she decides to return home.

Morgan is a girl who never expected anything to change when she got home, yeah maybe everyone would be worried about her and angry with her for taking off overnight, but what she finds when she finally makes it back home is that someone else is living in her house, and they have no idea what she’s talking about when she asks about her family. And that’s a huge problem.

The world that she finds herself in is one where it’s illegal to be overweight, even by a few pounds. Everyone is obsessed with dieting, working out, and there’s even a mantra about how great it is to be skinny and how it helps the world, that they have to repeat every day before school starts. The craziest part, is that the government keeps track of everyone’s weight in their weekly weigh ins, on their home scales, and if they think that you’re getting too heavy then they whisk you away to a facility where you can lose weight. And you have to stay there for however long it takes, and the worst part of that is that your family has to pay for it, sacrificing their home and any luxuries they could afford to get you back to what is in their mind, the correct weight.

Photo by Francesco Ungaro on Pexels.com

The writing in this book is very straightforward, first person, and tell rather than show. Which is something that usually isn’t my favourite, but I was fine with it in this. I really enjoyed reading it, and I would definitely check out the next book. I wish I could have seen more into the weight loss facilities, but I expect to learn more in future books. I really loved the forest parts, this was an easy to read book, easy to imagine, ,and I didn’t feel rushed reading it. It was a nice break from all the fast paced books I’ve been reading lately. I also really appreciated that it’s a great look into daily life for Morgan in this new world. I feel like she really grew and learned from her mistakes by the end of the book, and that’s something I love to see. I think it’s a very unique idea for a book, and it could be enjoyed by anyone aged twelve and up. Definitely check it out if you get the chance.

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

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

Thanks for reading! Hope you’re doing well, and not stumbling upon any parallel universes!

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.