Microchip: The Agenda Is Now
by Chey Barnes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Reveiwed for +Readers' Favorite .
This generation's version of George Orwell's "1984".
The world is changing, and ever so quickly. It used to be that everyone used paper money, and you got paid with a paper paycheck. Now it is credit and debit cards and your payroll is direct deposited. What is next? Microchip envisions a future that could easily be only years down the road in where now, everything is done with a mircochip in the hand. For the most part, the world goes along with the idea and complies without really thinking, but this story follows a few different types of people who question this process for different reasons. As each of these people search for a way to escape the law of mircochipping, they find themselves in the same place in Utah. Chey Barnes takes each person and their reasons, explaining them and giving them a place, and then you see what happens when they are all together. This is a science fiction story that hits just a little close to home.
Microchip might be science fiction today, but there are real life facts and information included in the book, and indexed in the back, that will leave you thinking hard about what you read. It's not a warning book, but a story of how different people are dealing with the law and what happens to them, there is a real human element in there. It is also very thought provoking and would be an excellent book for a book club or discussion group. Chey Barnes takes the information and technology of today and advances it only by a few years to give us this story. Although there is family and a little romance in the story, there is more a cautionary spirit that we need to be more careful and thoughtful, not just accepting everything that is handed to us. I think this should be a required reading just as George Orwell's 1984 used to be when I was in high school, this is a newer version of big brother.
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Ancasta ~ Guide me Swiftly Home
The Riduna Series, 2
by Diana Jackson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Reviewed for +Readers' Favorite
Ancasta is the continuation of the family saga that began in Riduna. Harriet is now a widow with four grown children. Edward is still traveling the seas enjoying his freedom. As the world starts to change and a war looms and progress, follow the former childhood friends and sweethearts as they deal with the ravages and realities of war in England. No one is untouched by the war, as Harriet will watch her twin sons both volunteer for service along with her daughter's husband. It will also be a time to reunite with old friends, Jane, that she had lost touch with who will become the steady rock of a friend that Harriet leaned on before she had Joe, and now with Joe gone, Jane will again become that rock. Diana Jackson doesn't pull any pushes with the tragidies and realities of the war and what it was like, still that does not diminish the glow of the story of a family once again facing the idea that dreams change and live goes on.
First Riduna and then Ancasta, these two books follow Harriet and Edward, who always thought their path in life would be together, but the realities of life was that it was not to be, finally in their retirement years are they able to realize that it wasn't them who changed but the world around them and the things than happened to them to make the dreams change. Diana Jackson weaves a story that is real and true and makes you feel that you are right there living it. It is a wonderful mix of the romance and realities of life with some of the technology advances of the historical time period of the novel. It is defintely a novel of moving on and never giving up, any reader will enjoy.
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Riduna
The Riduna Series, 1
by Diana Jackson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Reviewed for +Readers' Favorite .
Harriet always thought she had her simple life planned out. She would grow up on Riduna, marry and raise a family never leaving her tiny island home. Sometimes dreams aren't enough to face the realities of life, and the harsh realities of life can change even the best of dreams. Edward grwe up next door to Harriet and he had always dreamed of traveling, going to sea and adventuring but he always thought he would come back to the safe port of home in Riduna, and Harriet. When tragedies occur and Edward is far at sea and nowhere to be the rock that Harriet needs, his cousin Joe becomes her rock and protector. Riduna follows these three people through life and the developments of the world and war and all the changes that occur to change all of their dreams. Diana Jackson does a wonderful job of giving a family saga that touches your heart with love and heartache. You become involved in the family and want to know more and want to see what occurs.
Riduna is such a small island, but among the friends we met in the beginng, some can't wait to leave, some can never see leaving, and some who never planned to leave find things that they have no control over can change even the best of plans. Diana Jackson is a great writer and develops a wonderful story that has you feeling part of the lives of these people. You can almost imagine yourself on the island of Riduna right in their lives. There are historical events that truly occured mixed into the story that makes it feel even more real, and like this could really be someone's actual life. This is a great book, the first of two book in the series, and would be a wonderful read for anyone of interest.
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Moonshadows
by Claude Dancourt
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Reviewed for +Readers' Favorite .
Mira had her life all planned out until the night of a chance mugging turned it all upside down. The after effects of the so-called mugging left her a werecat, and one who did not want to be one, who ran out on her life, and was searching for a way to make it all go away. Erik was sure he had the perfect life until he returned home from a conference to find Mira gone, now after a year he has finally traced her down. He is determined to find some answers as to why she left. As Erik returns to her life, mira learns more about her werecat, finding out for the first time that she is only a cub, not a full-grown attack monster she thought she was. Knowing this her and Erik work together to uncover more information, the only problem a full grown werecat gone bad is hunting Mira. Moonshadows tells the werecat legend in the Native American tradition, and that is where Erik and Mira will need to look to find the information and help she needs. Claude Dancourt has written a story mixing a good vs evil theme, with the werecat and romance; a tricky balance to say the least.
Moonshadows is a bit of a different take on the werecat story, this time coming from the veiw of a person who was turned without their knowledge or constent and how they are fighting to find a way out of this. At the same time there is the story of the good and the evil, Mira never realizing that there could be a good to this, and the fight between them. Mixed in the middle of it all is the romance between Mira and Erik that was torn apart by the actions of one night that forever changed Mira's life and her belief that Erik could never accept it. Calude Dancourt does a good job of weaving this different threads into a cohesive story that makes since. If you are a fan of the paranormal genre this is another great book that will give you another look into the life.
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Never Lost
by Riley Moreno
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Romance and Paranormal are popular genre's today, and add in a young adult main character and you have most of the recent top sellers. Given that information, Never Lost is something of its own completely.
The main character is Harper who at 16 is forced to move from Chicago to a tiny farm village in Wisconsin where her mother grew up. Life is changed in an instant, and not to the better as far a Harper can tell. The first person she meets in this new town is Danny Benson, the problem, Danny is a 17 year old ghost who has been wandering the woods for the last 39 years!
The interactions and relationship that develops between Harper and Danny is unlike any ghost-human relationship you have ever read about, in fact Danny appears more human than ghost. It is an intense relationship and it helps Harper to adjust to the move, but it won't last for long.
Although this is a short book, it was originally written in five small installments, but I read them all together at once. This book packs a powerful story and kept me wanting more till the end, in fact I still want more of the story.
This is a great young adult or teen story, the trials of moving to a new town, all fit with life and make this story so easy to relate to in many ways.
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How To Get Your Ex-Boyfriend Back - The Proven Step-By-Step System to Restore Your Relationship!
by Natalie Watson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Let's face it, at some point in all of ours lives, we have found ourselves on the losing end of a relationship. Things just weren't going well, and you wondered if the relationship could be restored. How to Get Your Ex-Boyfriend Back is an easy to follow guide that gives you practical advice, and advice that if more women would listen to daily, would save more than just relationships!
One of the easiest and simplest things that the author talks about is that you need to take care of you. No man wants to be with a frump. If you have starting letting yourself go and not making an effort for your boyfriend, that might be the reason the relationship fizzled. This is true not only in dating, but in marriage as well. I know it works, on the days I take an extra effort to dress nice and put on jewelry and such, he notices, he makes comments, he acts a whole different way around me. Is it worth the effort? You bet!
Whether you are dating or in a rocky marriage, this book has tips that can help you win back the guy you love, or keep the guy you love with you. The tips are easy and if you are willing to do them, they will work, just buy the book.
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