POLL FOR TITLE OF MY NEW BOOK

As Johnny Five so aptly states:  Input.  I need input.

I have a poll question about the title for my new book. My late husband, Bob, already had a title for the story, but I always thought the title was a little weak, so I came up with a new one. Since I have a tendency to second guess myself, I feel like I need some constructive feedback.  And before I can start on the book cover, I obviously need the title.

Here is the premise of the story.  It’s a paranormal, adult action adventure that answers the questions of who is the Lady of the Lake and what is Excalibur. My hero is an American that after a severe brain trauma develops paranormal abilities: Telekinesis, Teleportation, Telepathy, etc. After his accident, he renames himself Arthur Merlin.  Several years after his accident, he finds himself drawn to England, where the book starts, at the Institute of Psychic Research, London, England. At the Institute he meets Dr. Ruth Buirns, which starts off their relationship and their quest for the answers to the Lady of the Lake and Excalibur.

So, the two titles I have dealing with are:

Arthur Merlin: The One and Only

Arthur’s Story

Please let me know which one you think sounds better in the comment section below.  And thank you for taking the time to read my post.

KYRATHABA RISING by William Bryan Miller

KYRATHABA RISING by William Bryan Miller

 

This is the type of book that’s hard to do a review on because I don’t want to give anything away. The plot, or should I say multiple plots, keeps you going back and forth, which personally I love. It’s sci-fi without going into the dreary, unnecessary, technical details. There is no confusion of characters and I became involved in the story almost from the beginning. My favorite character didn’t make itself known until the end, Mephord. Before that, it was Grant Thompson. What he finds in the subterranean water system is mind blowing. Makes me wonder, What if?

Yes, it ends with a cliffhanger, but this is definitely a series I want to finish. There are so many questions that we, the Readers, need answers to. And there are enough twists and turns to keep anyone with an active imagination happy. I love the whole concept of Kyrathaba. I love computer RPG’s so this feeds my Mage/Ranger fantasy. Now you’ll have to read the book to find out what I mean.

If you like action adventure and sci-fi, this will be right up your alley. I give this book my 5 feathers. My poor goose is going to be bald.

THE REUNION by A.A. Pencil

THE REUNION by A.A. Pencil

Lauryn Parker throws a 10 year high school reunion to flaunt her stardom in the face of her ex-classmates. But things go horribly wrong. Or do they?

This is a wonderful, scary story with a plot within a plot. Reading the story I kept thinking of the movie CLUE, but with a maniacal twist. There is a wide range of characters, and they each have their own distinctive personalities. We probably all know someone they will remind you of. There’s the triangle with Tyler, Taylor and Paige, the unrequited love of Remington and Julian, and then Samantha with her flock of hovering males. And of course the pregnant Annabelle. The POV moves around from person to person, but there’s never any confusion who is talking or who the POV should be. Very well done.  My only confusion was with the names.  So many of them could be male or female and was usually opposite of what I thought.

My one qualm with the plot is it’s pretty fast-paced until the Reader finally understands what’s really happening, then it slows down as more background has to be told. I thought the last chapter was frivolous, just the author trying to fill in too much detail, but once I got to the epilogue, I understood why that chapter was there. The final ending made both plots seem even creepier.

This book was released through a small publishing house, but they obviously didn’t spend money on a proofreader/editor. This book has so many missing words, wrong words and inconsistent usage of words, they ruined my reading enjoyment.  Fire place vs fireplace. Shot gun vs shotgun. All these errors just take away from what should have been a very good story.

Also, the author must not know anything about guns. Shotguns do not shoot large bullets; they shoot pellets or buckshot, in a spray pattern. The terminology for the end of the gun is the butt, recoil for back force and most shotguns need to be pumped before they are fired and most only hold two rounds. Google is a great tool for writers to use to research things they do not know or understand.

I really enjoyed this story and highly recommend if you want a good fright. But due to the above stated factors, I have to give only 3 feathers. Indie Authors need to be accountable for poorly published books.

REVENGE by Bill Ward

REVENGE by Bill Ward

 

Downtrodden gambler Tom is strolling home from an evening out with his brother Colin, when he witnesses’ a murder and kidnapping attempt. Against better judgment he jumps in trying to help the hapless victim, which turns out to be world famous actress, Melanie Adams. After thwarting the kidnapping attempt, with one of the kidnappers being shot to death, Tom finds himself caught in the crosshairs of the IRA.

The Revenge in this storyline is on more than one front. We have revenge of a sister for her brother, revenge of a Special Branch Officer for a fallen comrade and the revenge of a father for his son and daughter. But the underlying Revenge is between the Brits and the Irish, or vice-a-versa.

The plot is good, with a few twists. The double-agent Jones did throw me off and I totally forgot the father until the end, which fits a book called REVENGE. The characters are very well-defined and you can’t help but root for Tom and Melanie Adams. The relationship between Sam and Eduardo Is dynamic, and it left me feeling nervous and queasy at how Eduardo ended their relationship. Where Ward hurt the story, is going back into Eduardo’s head, after the fact, and explaining why he did what he did. Ward should have just left us readers hanging with our uneasy feelings.

With the well-defined characters and strong plot, this book could have been so much more.  Unfortunately I found it very slow reading with 80% narration and only 20% action and interaction between the characters. It finally picked up within the last couple of chapters and then it became a page-turner. 

To me this was an average read, so I give a 3 feather rating. If you like spy stories and intrigue, you will enjoy this one.

THE HAND THAT FEEDS By Michael W Garza

THE HAND THAT FEEDS

By Michael W Garza

Let me preface my review by saying I normally don’t like anything zombie. Never have. The thought of being eaten alive by dead people is just gruesome. But, that’s the nature of the beast. I always wonder what happens to the zombies when there aren’t any more live people to eat.

What will a mother and father do to keep their son alive? Or at least some semblance of life. This story gripped me from the beginning to the end. Very compelling. Just like the cover to the book. That’s what made me read it to begin with.  It kept staring at me from my kindle.  I downloaded the book for free.

Poor Alex as he finds himself in some type of burial site that I assume was full of decomposing zombie bodies. This was never explained in the book, which I feel should have been. I mean, it wasn’t that far from their farmhouse. How did he get there? How did he actually get infected? None of these questions were addressed.

And then there’s Angela and John Mason, mother & father. Angela is the domineering and slightly psychotic member of the family. She convinces John to do anything to keep their boy alive. He needs to be fed. So the scenarios they concoct to bring people to their house to feed their boy are ingenious. But mistakes happen, and one of their victims escapes.

Realizing what his son has become, John still tries to maintain a normal life by going to work every day. That’s when the ramifications of their actions hit him in his moral face. And now it’s a race against time and zombies to protect his family.

Garza does a great job in explaining how the zombies look and smell. Makes my nose wrinkle just thinking of their zombie breathe. And then there’s Angela and John, a pair to draw too. John is always bending to the will of Angela, until he sees the truth of what they’ve unleashed on the unsuspecting town of Evansville Kansas. With moral dilemma comes growth. But is it good or bad?

A dark entertaining tale, one I would highly recommend. I did spot a few typo errors, but not prolific. This story gets 4 feathers

        

The Necromancer’s Gambit By Nicolas Wilson

The Necromancer’s Gambit

By Nicolas Wilson

The governing bodies of the Gambit are referred to by chess pieces, King, Queen, Castle, Bishop, Knight, Rook and Pawn.  They each bring different aspects of magic to the game.  Now they are being challenged by a shadow gambit and one of their own is viciously murdered.  It’s Knights duty to find the murderer and stop the takeover of their gambit. 

There are several plot twists at the end.  One involves Bishop’s father.  Who is he?  And who actually betrays the gambit?  I liked the theme of the story and the intricate use of magic.  Wilson does a decent job at outlining some of the different characters in the story.  I liked Knights’ character, but sometimes I couldn’t tell from the dialogue how he was supposed to be feeling until it gets explained later when he’s thinking to himself.  I definitely knew Pawn’s personality, riding around in a teenage boy smelling red jeep, not sure if he’s gay or not.  And there’s Queen.  Definitely one of a kind.

Wilson jumps the POV from Knight, to Pawn and Rook several times throughout the book.  The change only happens at the beginning of a chapter, but you really have to read who the POV is talking to or referring to in that chapter to follow who is really the POV character.  Their dialogue all sounds the same.  Rook is female, but she still sounds like the men.  So that part was pretty confusing.  Hate having to go back a few pages to figure out who is actually talking as that does change the context of the storyline.

Wilson uses a different writing voice with hyphens everywhere.  It took awhile to get into the story because of them.  And the plot gets somewhat swallowed up with all the male genitalia references and jokes.  I don’t know any men who would talk that way to other men or women.  And I don’t see a girl telling another female she just met that she has a girl-stiffy.  Too high schooly writing for me. 

For the plot itself, it’s a good read.  If you’re homophobic, you may want to think twice before reading.  No sex acts, but a lot of reference to gay sex.  Because of the confusing POV and the myriad of proofreading errors, I have to give 3 feathers.