The McGregor Chronicles: Book 1 - Saving Mike
by Larry K. Collins, Lorna Collins
My rating: 4.3 of 5 stars
Reviewed for +Readers' Favorite
When space travel is an everyday occurrence, sleeping for long periods of travel is the norm. As Matt is waking from his sleep, he is hearing voices. Turns out he has medical nanobots in his body and they are ready to help him. As Matt finally comes to, he realizes that his brother Mike is gone. The McGregor Chronicles: Saving Mike is the story of what Matt goes through to rescue his brother, including being paired with a young Federation Officer, Tracy Warren, who although she has a pilot license, has never actually flown a craft. Whereas Matt, who doesn't have a license, has grown up on a space craft. The two work together against pirates and even some shady officials to hopefully bring their family back together again. Authors Larry K. Collins and Lorna Collins have teamed up to create a new space adventure.
The McGregor Chronicles, is set to be a series and this book in particular is the beginning. As a beginning book in a series, we are introduced to a very large McGregor Clan, mainly focusing in Matt and somewhat Mike, but you meet a number of others. We are also given some background and history of Tracy and her unique upbringing. Authors Larry K. Collins and Lorna Collins have given the reader space travel, adventure, pirates, corruption, military, family and a touch of romance all in one story. All of this keeps the story moving along at a quick pace and before you realize it the book is over. There is also the nanobot technology and the moral and ethical questions in how to use it, which will cause you to pause and think. This is a very clean book, no sex or foul language. I feel confident recommending it to teens, young adults and older readers.
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Titan Lost (Galactic Lineage, Book 1)
by Colin Kortekaas
My rating: 4.2 of 5 stars
Reviewed for +Readers' Favorite
War, environmental destruction, and greed are only a few things that have made Earth someplace not really all that great to live. An experimental mining colony has been set up on Saturn's moon, Titan. It seems to be a strange cross-section of people who have chosen to try life in the colony. A jumbled distress call goes out from the colony and Mack is hired to travel to the Titan colony and find out what is going on. In the book, Titan Lost (Galactic Lineage Book 1), you start with Mack arriving at Titan, then you jump back three years to when the distress call was sent out and as you progress through the story, you go back and forth, in flashbacks and such. Author Colin Kortekaas gives you a number of characters that you will either like or hate. There is the scientist, Gus; the doctor, John; the biologist, Irene; and the miner, Max.
Titan Lost (Galactic Lineage, Book 1) is the beginning of a series. Usually when you read a book you are pretty sure where the series is going to go, but with this, there is a slight teaser at the very end, but no real hints as to what you will find in the next book. That makes the wait for the next book that much harder. Author Colin Kortekaas gives the reader an story full of adventure, morals, future living and the story moves along quickly. You find yourself engaged in the story and before you realize it the book is done. Other than some mild adult language, this is a fairly clean book. I would easily recommend it for teens, young adults and older readers.
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Dusgadh Essence of Life Book One: The Awakening
by Margaret A. Daly
My rating: 4.3 of 5 stars
Reviewed for +Readers' Favorite
Dusgadh, such an odd word to title a story, but then when you subtitle it Essence of Life, maybe it makes more sense. Ember has never felt like she fit in. She loved her family, but they were taken from her in middle school and she was left with only her older sister. She has trouble making friends, and even worse, she sees ghosts. She is just fumbling along in life until one night, a party and a seance in the park brings up something more than Ember or anyone else was expecting. Author +Margaret A. Daly sets this fantasy, supernatural, paranormal story around a group of late teenagers. Throwing in past-lives and reincarnation along with some evil magic, power hungry kings and rebel forces bent on resistance. How it all comes together is the beginning of a series, and this story is the start, the Awakening, or the memories of the past returning to Ember, allowing her to continue on her mission.
Dùsgadh: Essence of Life, The Awakening is a wonderful first book in a series, in fact I really thought it was a complete book until the very end when I realized there was more to be told still. By using the concept of awakening, Ember recovers her memories of the past and her past lives in this book, and so her sister is there to explain things to her as well as her two guardians. Although author +Margaret A. Daly uses this book to set the background and introduce you to characters and the whole concept of the story, it still has plenty of action, adventure and death to keep you on the edge of your seat as you are reading. There are even some people that are barely mentioned in this book, that I have a sneaking feeling are going to show up in later books, only because I just can't see the author making the deal out of them in this book without them showing up again somewhere. This is a great read, and I am willing to say middle schoolers, teens, young adults and up would enjoy this story!
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The Birth of Death
by Joseph Macolino
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Reviewed for +Readers' Favorite
Forget all you know and read with me of a different world, created by the Druids and for them. Deep in nature, the Druids each created species to help them take care of their specific area. Time has passed and the Druids have all long gone and passed on, but the species each thrive and continue to take care of their own areas. The Birth of Death tells of a story that had been told of a great sin being committed but that nature had taken care of that sin, most people thought the story to just be a story and nothing more. As we learn the story is more, there are truths and that sin is more than just a sin, but death. How can the species defend themselves from this new threat? Is there a chance that they might be able to put aside their differences and work together, just this one time, for the good of Evorath? Author +Joseph P. Macolino has created another world to set his story of evil, the need for people to set aside differences and work together, and revolution.
The Birth of Death is a wonderful tale of a world that was created in all the splendor of nature to be the home of each of nine Druids. The Druids each then created a species of people to help them take care if that home. Each species was best suited to take care of the nature where they lived and had the specific powers of their Druid. Author +Joseph P. Macolino creates a fantasy story, that you can easily read and enjoy. If you take the time to really notice the story being told, you can see conflicts that minor our own in society. Granted we may not be facing death in the form of a person, but the world needs us to put aside different sides and work together towards a common goal. If you allow yourself to listen to the deeper meanings and think about it, this is a highly thought provoking book. There are a number of things that occur that should upset you. I recommend this book for most all readers, personally I feel that teens and young adults could handle it, but that would be a parental judgement call.
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The Fussy Librarian
The Books of Azric: The Beginning
by B M Griffin
My rating: 4.2 of 5 stars
Reviewed for +Readers' Favorite
Forget everything you learned in school about the world and the planets. Image a world, or a series of worlds, we'll call them realms for this story, each is different, has a completely different landscape, ecosystem, native peoples, and technology; yet they are all connected through a series of central portals. One portal going to and from each realm. Interested? This is where The Books of Azric begin. Helping us get a little history into the whys and hows of this world is Zane, a young elf boy that bounty hunter Colt has taken under his wing, so to speak. Since Zane has had no school Colt tells him what he knows, a little at a time. But this isn't just a story of a bounty hunter teaching his apprentice, no they are being hunted by a villain, at the same time they are hunting the villain, all of which has been set up by a slightly dishonest nobleman and a mysterious man talking about the true lineage of the king. Author +B. M. Griffin gives the reader so much to digest that at times you are not sure who is really the good guy and who is the bad guy.
While The Books of Azric is set as the first in a series, it definitely sets up the world and gives you some knowledge on the worlds and just enough to keep you sorta knowing what is going on, but not enough so that you just have to keep reading to figure it all out. The cast of characters that author+B. M. Griffin creates in this book are amazing too, because you don't just have your main characters a some bit pieces, you have three to four full storylines going at any one time with a full cast of characters, now sometimes those characters overlap with each other and other times, things are going on in one realm at the same time in another realm. The author engages all your senses in trying to keep everything straight and at times you think you know what is going on, only to find what you thought was wrong, they fooled you as well as the people in the story. This is a great story, definitely lost of violence, its bounty hunting and crimes and sheriffs, it just is, not too graphic, but its there. Young adult and up would be a good audience.
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