The Black
by Neil Mosspark
My rating: 4.1 of 5 stars
Without warning one morning ten years ago, a black dome appeared over what was then Toronto. No one knew were it came from or why, but thousands of people died, and a huge area around it was off limits. Governments began working together, sorta, to try to figure out what it was and what to do about it, and that lead to Dave's current job. He trainers miners to try to tunnel far enough under the edge of the black dome to see if they can get inside.
Nothing ever goes as planned, and when they finally start getting a tunnel far enough in, strange things start happening that threaten to derail the whole project. A last ditch effort with Dave leading the charge and his best friend, Tony, who has been in the higher ups of this project all along, with him, leads to something completely unexpected!
This is a science fiction novel, and tells an engaging story that has you reading from page one. You want to understand where this black dome came from and what it is doing and you are completely interested in what is going on, and then everything gets completely flipped on its head!
I can't, and won't say why it gets flipped because that would ruin it for future readers, but just know that things are not as they seem, and once Dave has the chance to get inside the Black, all bets are off!
I really enjoyed this book and read it quickly because I couldn't put it down.
In the spirit of full disclosure, I received and ARC copy of this book. This is my honest and truthful review, it was not influenced in any way by receiving a copy of the book.
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Love, Alchemy
by Eden Ashley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Reviewed for +Readers' Favorite
Life is not a bed of roses for Davey, her mom is an alcoholic who has no problem using her for a punching bag. All she wants is to make it through her senior year and get out of this place, too bad she has resorted to illegal means to try to finance her plans. Her sometimes boyfriend is the son of a powerful judge, but that doesn't prevent them from getting into major trouble, thanks to Davey's mom Tina. Enter a strange cop, Ethan, who makes it his mission to protect Davey, even though there are major holes in his own memory. As Davey and Ethan end up on the run from a powerful drug lord, they become closer and a lot of Ethan's past starts to become clearer. Love, Alchemy is listed as a romance, and there is definitely that, but there is so much more. Action, adventure, cop chases, murder, lies, betrayal, deceit and a science fiction background. Author Eden Ashley creates an unbelievable story that pulls you and and keeps you until the last page.
Love, Alchemy is a wonderful story that keeps you guessing from the beginning to the end. You never know what is going to happen next, and the science fiction touches make you think of the possibilities for the future and what might be going on behind closed lab doors. Author Eden Ashley makes you feel for Davey, from the way she describes the home life to the need to earn money, from the way that people in town treat her, to her vulnerable emotions. This is a great book, and I recommend it to every reader, although given some of the themes I would not recommend it to younger readers. This book will have you laughing, crying and never putting it down until you finish.
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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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Emma... to Begin Again
by Debbie Brown
My rating: 4.3 of 5 stars
Reviewed for +Readers' Favorite
For five years Emma has put off coming back here, back to the place she called home. She just couldn't bear it at first, and it was easier to put it off than to deal with it, but now she was going to have to deal with it. It still hurt, her parents were gone, killed in a plane crash on their way to her graduation, now she was left alone. Emma....to Begin Again, is the story of Emma, deciding to stay at her parents old farmhouse, to tend the few animals and grow a garden, to start anew. Author Debbie Brown throws in a twist when one day Emma sees what has to be a plane crash but she never sees a plane, as she follows the trail, she finds an injured man, that she takes home and nurses back to health. Adding him into her quiet life is another new beginning. As time goes by and we learn the heritage of her stranger, another even larger twist is in store for Emma and the readers. Take a little Native American folktale, add in a touch of romance, a little fantasy, and a bit of science fiction and you have this book.
Emma....to Begin Again, is a wonderful title, and as I started to read the book I thought it was talking about her decision to stay on the farm. Little did I know that as the book would go on Emma would be faced with a number of circumstances that would force her to begin again. Author Debbie Brown does a spectacular job of taking an old Native American folktale of the Star Brother and weaving it with a realistic modern life, adding in just enough science fiction and fantasy to make it believable. This is a perfect book for all readers. There is no sex or violence in the book at all, so it is perfect for teens, young adults as well as adult readers.
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Playing with Passion Theta Series Book 1
by Gayle Parness
My rating: 4.4 of 5 stars
Reviewed for +Readers' Favorite
The year is 2175 and so much has changed in the world as we know it. Northern America is ruled by an archdemon called The Director, his brother rules Northern Europe. There are clans of werewolves and vampires everywhere, and humans are surviving in the slums, just barely. Another class has emerged, called Thetas, they are born of two human parents and have psychic abilities, but they are controlled completely by The Director. They are grouped into troupes of actors and they perform virtual shows for their audiences, the thing is they have so many more capabilities than anyone believes, they just haven't learned them yet. Playing with Passion follows a specific Ingrid, all the lead females are called Ingrid, and her desire for something more, her desire to break free. When she is placed in the Hudson New York Troupe, where everyone actually takes care of each other she finds a place where maybe there are people willing to learn what they are capable of and break free. Author +Gayle Parness mixes romance, fantasy, science fiction, class struggle and slavery into an engaging tale.
Playing with Passion not only alludes to the idea of the troupe of actors in the book, but also that the virtual performances they create for the audience given them a passionate, euphoric feeling. It also gives a hint to the dynamics between the characters, including a forbidden romance between an actress and a stage manager. +Gayle Parness does a wonderful job drawing you into this story, building the characters and slowly letting history and background on each come out, just as in a real relationship, so that you feel you are becoming friends with them as your read. You want to help them, you understand the issues and want to see them fight but at the same time know it is dangerous. This is a wonderfully engaging read. Definitely recommend it more for the adult reader as there is some sexual scenes and some references to past sexual abuses.
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Storyland
by Dawn Napier
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Reviewed for +Readers' Favorite
Memorial Day weekend that year was the same as any other year, except that come Tuesday the world would forever change. It became known simply as It, in the time Before and the time After. Storyland begins with a series of small chapters, each a brief scene into the life of a character that might show up again in the later story. Each of these scenes are labeled by time. Ten years AR, or Five years AR, or even Twenty years AR, and it gives you glimpses into how rapidly some things in the world changed and how slowly other things changed. In the remainder of the book, +Dawn Napier tells the story of Alicia and her life in the time after. Her struggle, her crusade, and what she must endure to survive in this new world order.
Storyland defies a genre label. It can easily be called a fantasy book, albeit a bit dark. It could be called a dystopian, or supernatural or even paranormal. It really doesn't matter what you want to call it, you just want to find it, take your time and read. I do mean to take your time, because as you watch the world crumble, you will be forced to think, to realize that no one is prepared for every possibility, and chaos can rule. +Dawn Napier does a wonderful job of bring classic monsters and demons from all the favorite writers of the past, and making them living, breathing characters in this world. Some just come into being, and other morph out of humans already on the planet. What is fabulous is how the author is able to give the perspective from those people as they don't understand what is happening to them, and they still try to retain some of their human qualities. As with any post-apocalyptic type world where chaos rules, there are adult themes in this book, nothing graphic, and not much, but it definitely belongs in the story when the author uses it. Therefore I recommend it for adult readers!
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Bloodline : Forgotten Origin Trilogy, Book 1
by Tara Ellis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Reviewed for +Readers' Favorite
Alex and her younger brother Jake are laying on the hillside in the park watching the stars, along with their mother and most of the rest of the town, waiting on the greatest meteor display in 5000 years. Her dad loved this stuff and had been talking about this display for years, in fact he talked of them watching it in Egypt, but that had been before he died. The shower is spectacular, although one seems to come pretty close, and then Alex's mom comes down with a terrible cold. Not only Alex's mom, but most of the town. As people come out of their colds they are not the same, and Alex starts finding clues left behind by her father. She turns to Chris, a 75% Cherokee by blood boy in her school, as he didn't get sick either. Alex is 50 % Egyptian by blood. Bloodline: Forgotten Origin Trilogy Book 1 follows Alex and Chris as they try to figure out her fathers clues and what is going on with their friends and family. Author Tara Ellis gives us a wonderful story that fits many genres.
Bloodline builds on purity of a family blood history, so Chris and Alex, having a extremely pure family history have highly concentrated bloodlines and therefore they do not get sick when the virus takes over. This is a unique concept and at the same time slightly disturbing because the odds of anyone having sure a pure bloodline nowadays is remote. Tara Ellis gives us a story that easily falls into the science fiction, or fantasy or even paranormal genres, but no matter how you classify it, it is worth a read for young adults and adults alike. This book is to be the first in a three part trilogy.
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The Stray : To Plan
by K. E. Strokez
Reviewed for +Readers' Favorite .
Matthew Bridge has been accepted into a prodigious academy called St. Kenneth's. His twin brother Ken is accepted along for the ride, despite his objections. Life in this boarding school is going to be like nothing Ken has ever experienced before. Right from the beginning Ken begins having hallucinations. They feel real to him, but he is not sure what is really going on. As the story progresses we learn that nothing in The Stray: To Plan is what it seems to be, everything is an illusion and a trick. K.E. Strokez gives us a fantasy, science fiction, paranormal novel in which someone has set up a simulation world that runs in a bubble, and there are people watching it, yet it is not real. The gravity of the situation is enormous.
The Stray: To Plan turns out to be an elaborate simulation that has been running for a very, very long time, in fact at this point in time they are at Phase 83. The people in the simulation think it is real life and are living day to day, and yet there are people out side watching them, observing what they are doing. K.E. Strokez writes a story that is part fantasy, part science fiction, part paranormal and yet at the same time there is just enough technology available today that makes you stop and think, you know this might just actually be possible to pull off. Reading it gave me goosebumps and reminding me of reading George Orwell's 1984 back in 1982. There is just enough reality to make you take notice of what he is writing about and make you think about this as a possibility, not today, but in a few years. Great read for young adults and adults alike!
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Loxy Quum and the Merge Experiment
by Ricky Mon
My rating: 3.75 of 5 stars
Reviewed for +Readers' Favorite .
Loxy and his sister Lana live on a far away planet. They and their parents, along with four other families were sent there to determine if the planet could support life, and if so to build a colony. Loxy and Lana, as well as the others on this planet are what are called merged humans. This means that they have human and animal DNA merged together. One day the parents on the planet all disappear, and it is up to the kids to find out what has happened, and to find out all the truths of the world outside their small planet that their parents have hidden from them throughout their lives. Loxy Quum and the Merge Experiment is science fiction, but there are real life morals and applications from the story that can be applied to real life. Ricky Mon does a wonderful job in merging the science fiction story to attract the attention of the readers with the moral and ethical issues that need to be learned about and learned from.
Loxy Quum and the Merge Experiment is a young adult book, but I definitely feel it could be read by Middle School children, in fact I think it might be a great book to read in school. While the story is science fiction, there is real life application. You can trace the treatment of the merged humans to slavery and more in history. This is what makes this book one that would work well in a school setting for kids to read. While they get a fun story, they also learn of the real life impacts of discrimination. Ricky Mon takes some tough ideals in discrimination and puts them into a story that most pre-teens and teens would enjoy reading. This is a win-win book, and something that teachers would be pleased to take a look at and possible teach from. Even if not in school, I think this is a book worth reading for that age set.
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Born of Silence
The League, Book 6
by Sherrilyn Kenyon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The future worlds under the protection of the League are once again the setting for this, the fifth book in the series. Sherrilyn Kenyon takes us back to a cruel and tough existance of this future, yet one where poeople who truly find love, love more deeply than anyone else.
This story will follow the Sentella agent Kere, the governor to be Darling Cruel and the leader of the resistance forces, Zayra. Zayra and Kere, meet on missions and fall in love, and although he has managed to keep his indenty hidden form her, to protect Sentella and the organization, he is ready to reveal all to her, but he needs four days he tells her to protect his family. Of course, we all know what happens to the best laid plans of mice and men.
Darling Cruel may be his name, but he is anything but cruel, although that is not what the world thinks of him, and he just lets them think what they want. The abuse and torture that Darling endures throughout his life at the hands of his Uncle, schoolmates, doctors, guards, and captors is beyond belief. It is more than anyone one person should ever have to go through, in fact it is probably more than ten people should have to go through. Does it explain who he is? Sorta, but more it makes the love he feels for those friends that he holds dear that much more remarkable. He is willing to die for certain friends that have proved their loyalty to him. There is enough detail in the accounts that you understand what is going on and what happened to him, but not so much that you are sick to your stomach.
Now, I have read a few reviews that said they HATED this book because they felt like the author jumped ship with Darling. I am not sure what they are talking about. They felt that the author "turned a gay character straight" and I think that is silly. In the entire series I have never though Darling was gay. Yes he hung out with Maris, who is clearly gay, but I got the feeling more that Darling didn't want anyone to know anything about his love life, it was a closely guarded secret, not that he was gay. So this book did not seem a departure from the past storylines for me, in fact I felt it fit in perfectly.
I have loved this series, and excited to say that it looks like there are at least three more books scheduled to be released in the series, or at least the author have given out titles for three more. I also happen to love the setting, the future and this harsh and unforgiving world, where people love better. Sometimes I wish I could actually go there!
The League
Book 1: Born of Night
Book 2: Born of Fire
Book 3: Fire & Ice
Book 4: Born of Ice
Book 5: Born of Shadows Link to My Review
Book 6: Born of Silence
Book 7: Cloak & Silence Link to My Review
Book 8: Born of Fury
Book 9: Born of Betrayal
Book 10: Born of Defiance
Book 11: Born of Vengeance
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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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The Godarian Son
by Steve Shanley
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Reviewed for +Readers' Favorite .
Jess and his friends, Allah and Mhose want to travel from their group of planets and find a new uninhabited planet that they can establish and create a world without wars and prejudices. They are sure they can do it if their parents will just let them. Lor, Jess's father and Asha, Allah's father give them permission and the friends set off to find a new plant, the trip is uneventful, except for a brief slip past some demon ships. They find the perfect plants and call it Eartus. They return home only to find the Demon ships in their way, They take their computers, and when they find out who Jess is, The Godarian son they run but threaten to be back. The friends return and present their findings to Lor, and they are granted to permission to inhabit the planet. They are able to report back to Lor that it is working, but every time they leave Eartus, the Demons ships return to mess with what they created, so they return to fix things. While this is going on, the original plants where the friends came from are still warring among themselves and the plant that Jess and Lor are on have signed a long-term peace agreement not to interfere. Stephen Shanley weaves the story of creation into a new light with this tale.
Read this story aloud if you can, because as you say the names of the people in the story you will stay to understand the similarities. You will see where Stephen Shanley was going with this story, each person and place relates to something in the real world, if you look close. If you look close enough you will see two parallel stories happening, in two different solar systems, anytime Jess is away from one there are problems in the other. The Godarian Son might be a fanciful play on creation, but I find some many things that could be explored and talked about, where the followers of Jess and Allah realized they wanted the same things and they shouldn't fighting each other! I would recommend this to young and old with and open mind and an open heart.
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One: A New Beginning
by Lennie Stanfield
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Reviewed for +Readers' Favorite
Zack and his dad, Jim were good friends. They had always been close, but after the passing of Zack's mom and Jim's wife Deann, they grew even closer. It was a bound that got them through the tough times. This weekend they were going caving, a new cave no one knew about. Zack and Jim were always careful when caving, and took great care with their supplies and safety precautions, but no one could have foreseen what happened. One has been dormant for so long, many, many centuries and yet something is happening around him. Something that he feels he needs to check out. One observes Zack and the aftermath of the caving accident, he is moved to help. What follows is an unbelievable blending of faith and sci-fi. One is from another planet and together he and Zack rebuild and plan out Zack's life. Lennie Stanfield uses the people around Zack to confirm his faith and at the same time, One is part of the story that confirms the faith Zack has known his whole life. One: A New Beginning is also the story of a new life for One, his old life gone and a chance and a reason to become active again.
One: A New Beginning is a superb blending of faith and another planet with life on it. I have never seen it done in a book before, especially not like this, and yet it worked. Yes, I had to go bad and reread of of the pages where One is talking because of the more complex computer like language he uses, but it was worth it. The bond between Zack and his Dad, amazing! Not only that, but every family relationship you meet in this book, Lennie Stanfield has made a strong family relationship. I would love to find a place where all the relationships are that strong, but it was just so comforting to read about them. Zack is just graduating from two-year of college, so to say this could also be a coming of age book would be true, but I also think teens and adults would enjoy the story.
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