Review: Fatal Objective by D.V. Berkom

 

Genre: Thriller

Description:

“A missing assassin. An unlikely betrayal. A secret cabal, sowing chaos.

Leine Basso's missing.

She's not answering her calls. Or texts. Lou and Santa fear she's been compromised. According to her contact on the op she's fine, just busy.

When she finally responds it doesn’t sound like her.

The two men who know her best aren’t buying it. Something isn't right.

Leine Basso's missing.

And Lou and Santa are going to find out why.”

Author:

USA Today bestselling author DV Berkom is the author of numerous novels in at least three major series and genres ranging from western to modern day thrillers. The one thing her books all have are what she describes as “kick-ass female characters.”

For more, visit Ms Berkom’s website.

Appraisal:

This is the 12th book in the Leine Basso series. It has the obvious things that returning readers would expect. First, the kick-butt female lead, Leine, obviously. The series has her name after all. A few recurring characters make an appearance as well. If you’ve read and liked one or more of the previous books, I’d expect you’ll like this one.

However, if you felt there was a pattern to the old books, like you could guess at a high level what was going to happen with just the specifics changing, the mold got broken for this book. I don’t want to say anything else so as to not accidentally include a spoiler beyond saying that this book is different. I also thought a bit of a bomb got dropped near the end, but if you read to the last word (even beyond “the end”) then you’ll get better perspective on that.

Now I’m eager to get the next book in the series when it come out. Keep’em coming, Ms Berkom.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Although this is book 12 in the series, I think it could be read as a standalone if you haven’t read any of those that came before. There are definitely things from the past that are briefly referenced and you’ll understand Leine and her relationship with the other recurring characters better if you’ve read prior books, but you should still be able to follow and enjoy the story without having done that.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 70-75,000 words

Review: The Survivors by T.C. Weber

 Genre: Dystopian

Description:

“In a calamitous future, runaway climate change has made the planet nearly uninhabitable. Civilization has collapsed, and every day is a struggle. Lucy, a young mother of two, dreams of a better life by bringing back vanished knowledge. But the rest of her group is focused only on day-to-day survival—at any price. When a deadly hurricane destroys their home, Lucy’s group is forced on the road, where they must cope with hunger, searing temperatures, and vicious rivals. And their nightmare is just beginning…”

Author:

The author of several novels, T.C. Weber is an avid traveler (he’s visited all seven continents). By day he works for a non-profit organization as an ecologist. Weber lives with his wife in Maryland.

For more, visit Mr Weber’s website.

Appraisal:

A post-apocalyptic novel typically assumes a big disaster of some kind, whether something natural, the spread of a massive disease, war, or something else. While this story feels much like some of the post-apocalyptic novels I’ve read, I’m not sure it fits that. A dystopian novel typically imagines the direction some segment of society is trying to get the world to move, assumes a slippery slope worst case, and then shows the imagined results. It’s not pretty. I think it would be fair to call this book dystopian, but it differs in one major way. The world it imagines is not what will happen if government and society change in some fashion, but what is likely to happen if we don’t change. Essentially it imagines the world in the not-so-distant future if we don’t address climate change, figuring out how to stop and even reverse it. It doesn’t paint a pretty picture.

At the heart of the story is Lucy, a young lady and mother of two. She and her kids are now a part of a small group of people who have managed to survive in spite of fires, flooding, lack of food and limited functional infrastructure. Very few humans are still alive and running into another group is problematic as they are just as likely to want to take what Lucy and her group have, leaving them dead, as they are to join forces for the mutual benefit of both groups. (Not that the leader of Lucy’s group is going to want to treat the other group any differently.)

Lucy’s experiences and struggles got me wondering how I would react in this kind of situation and what the right reactions should be. It makes for an intense, thought provoking read, not only wondering how you’d react in the same situation, but also what you can do to reduce the odds of the world reaching the point chronicled in this book.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

Format/Typo Issues:

Review is based on an advance reader copy that hadn’t been fully proofread, so I can’t gauge the final product in this area.

Rating: **** Four Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 30-35,000 words

Review: The Stories of Our Lives: A Short Story Collection by Brandy Isadora

 Genre: Short Story Collection

Description:

“Life is an extreme sport. The Stories of Our Lives is a series of mind-bending short stories that tell the experiences of characters who find themselves living in the margins of society. These stories show just how far someone will go to survive, find love, and feel alive.

Adam, an introvert in his mid-thirties, just wants to get a good night’s sleep without being woken up by his noisy neighbors. He finds the perfect place to live, but the only problem is that it’s a community for residents fifty-five and older. Adam has a plan to make this his new home, but he gets much more than he bargains for.

One night, as twenty-year-old Tesla is getting ready to pick up her mom from the airport, the power grid goes dark. Suddenly, there is no communication: no cell phones, no news reports, and no social media. No one has any idea what is really going on, and civil society is quickly disintegrating as people become fearful. Now, every choice that Tesla makes could mean life or death.

After his daughter is killed in a car accident, Preach, a biker, hires Alex for representation. Sometimes during the darkest and scariest times, friendships come from the least likely of places. These two men couldn’t be more different, but through this tragedy they become the best of friends and along the way Preach teaches Alex to embrace what life brings and to enjoy the ride.

Check out Brandy Isadora’s insightful compilation of fiction and discover eighteen mesmerizing short stories slicing up lives altered by unexpected events and revealing a rollercoaster of emotions! If you like unique voices, thought-provoking scenarios, and heart-stopping inner conflicts, then you’ll love Brandy Isadora’s enthralling anthology.”

Author:

“Brandy Isadora has always been an artist at heart. An award-winning author and photographer whose work has been exhibited internationally, Brandy believes that everyone has a story to tell.”

Appraisal:

I tend to read novels, with all that implies. The stories are obviously longer. They’re usually more complicated. However, sometimes I need a change of pace, and look for a short story collection to provide that. This collection was just what I was looking for. Interesting characters with stories that kept me guessing. Some characters I could relate to as “a lot like me” and others that gave me a chance to consider different situations and viewpoints. The genres of the story vary with some sci-fi like aspects in some stories and a wide range of people and topics. The thing all the stories have in common is they are entertaining reads.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 55-60,000 words

Review: It Takes an Oni by Scott Rhine

 

Genre: Fantasy

Description:

“Solomon Oni has taken a commission to rob (sic) something of devastating power from the Smithsonian’s religious artifact vault. His only friend, other than a magical tattoo artist and the odd djinn, is a young misfit witch named Morgan. When supernatural thugs threaten her, he demonstrates just how much a former servant of the underworld can do to punish the wicked.”

Author:

“Scott Rhine wanted to find a job that combined his love of reading with math problem solving, so he studied both short stories and computer languages. When his third publication, Doors to Eternity, hit #16 on the Amazon epic fantasy list, he decided to become a full-time author. Since then, each book of his Jezebel's Ladder series hit the high-tech science fiction top 100. His medical thriller, The K2 Virus, is his highest-rated novel. His latest books are witch academy stories written for his teenage daughter.”

For more, visit Mr Rhine’s blog.

Appraisal:

This tale of monsters and magic begins with a fib. “However, instead of working to punish the wicked, I became one of the wicked,” spoken by the narrator Solomon Oni about himself. He is in fact a soft-hearted uncle figure, who is so sensitive that he goes to physical pain to disguise his ugliness. His wickedness comes down to thievery, but literature abounds with noble thieves from Robin Hood to Jean Valjean. Solomon’s objective is to steal a magical object on behalf of the Drinking God. How more noble can one get?

The narrative may be stronger as a love story than a fantasy crime caper. “She doesn’t have to love you back or even talk to you,” says the “wicked” Solomon to his disciple, who adores a girl under the oni’s protection. Replies the disciple: “I have to be there to see that flower open, even if she wakes up and realizes I’m not worth her time.” Selfless love is something the world could use a great deal, even an iota, more of. Solomon himself is so besotted by his love interest, the girl’s mother, that he scarcely dares touch her least he be overcome and reveal his true visage.

At least, I think that is what is going on. I found the narrative too baroque. Magical powers pop up without support from an underlying logic. Minor characters appear, often unexpectedly, without benefit of background, introduction, or often as not, even purpose. “Already taken care of,” I assured her. “I texted your surveillance team too.” Where’d that team come from? Who are its members? What are their capabilities? What exactly is their objective? There is no other mention of the team, so why inject it? A good bit of writing, such as a description of an ESOL class, are asides that do not advance the story.

Even a fantasy needs accuracy in real world references. A bit persnickety perhaps, but I was bothered by: “Then, I texted a contact at a Zen monastery to order a saffron priest’s robe in his size.” Zen monks wear black, not the saffron of Thai and other Buddhist monks.

It Takes an Oni may still be an enjoyable read. Like a good PI novel, it is driven by characters more than plot. The characters are likeable and interesting, and this reader wants them to win.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Not suited for young readers

Format/Typo Issues:

None worth noting

Rating: **** Four Stars

Reviewed by: Sam Waite

Approximate word count: 90-95,000 words

Reprise Review: MAYA: Symbiogenesis Book One by Pete Barber

 Genre: Thriller/Sci-Fi/Contemporary Fiction

Description:

“Hours before doctors plan to switch off her premature daughter’s life-support systems, Lauren risks all and injects her baby with a stolen experimental drug. The last-resort treatment transforms Maya’s genetic fingerprint. While Lauren struggles to disguise the reason for her daughter’s miraculous recovery, Maya develops unique abilities that may signal a new, more hope-filled future for humankind, or perhaps sound its death knell.”

Author:

Born into a blue-collar family in Liverpool, England, Pete immigrated to the US in the early 90s and settled in North Carolina.

After surviving near-death experiences at ages six and eighteen, he led a haphazard life, putting bread on the table as a plumber, computer programmer, salesperson, marketing executive, hotel operator, real-estate developer, and llama farmer.

Pete writes fast-paced fiction that makes people think--what if?

Pete's debut thriller--NanoStrike--has over 150 5-STAR reviews on Amazon US. Love Poison, a suspenseful romance was published September 2014. When A Warrior Comes Home followed in March 2015. MAYA, November 2016... more to come!

Mr. Barber is also a Pal reviewer at BigAl’s Books and Pals, to learn more please visit his website or follow him on Facebook.

Appraisal:

Mr. Barber doesn’t waste any time setting up his characters and scenes. The players are all fully developed and well portrayed. I tried to hold off on how I felt about Lauren through most of the book. She has a lot to lose with the critical decisions she has to face time and time again throughout the story. I didn’t have any problem identifying with her character though. Lauren is intelligent and well centered while Margaret, Lauren’s mother, was a different story. I didn’t like her at all. Fact is, Margaret’s beliefs were a major plot twist in the story and I was sure I wouldn’t like where the story was headed. However, Mr. Barber’s intelligent writing style brought me around to the compassion of understanding and accepting things you can’t change about the people you love. Margaret isn’t a bad person, she was under a misperception and simple minded. Lauren understood this and added a balance in the way she handled her mother.

Maya is a suspenseful sci-fi that employs biogenetics with a spiritual edge. I found it easy to become engrossed in all the implications involved that then evolved into this stunningly inspiring tale. I had no problem suspending my disbelief to revel in the possibilities. There are several twists that complicate the plot, some were unexpected, others you could see coming. Despite that, this is a story that will play with your emotions and may cause you to question your own beliefs.

I appreciated the time jumps used in the story. Things could have easily bogged down with too many details that weren’t relevant to moving the story forward. I have no doubt that these time warps will be filled in with flash backs in future additions to the series. The ending is tense and shocking, but adds closure to an important story arc. It also gives us a peek at how Maya has matured over the years and gives us insight into her mindset. Neither suspense nor sci-fi are my normal genres, but I loved this compelling story and can’t wait to read more about Maya.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

MAYA is book one in the Symbiogenesis series.

Original review was posted on December 26, 2016.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant proofing issues.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: ?wazithinkin

Approximate word count: 70-75,000 words

Review: Weatherman by Price Doom

 Genre: Science Fiction/Coming of Age/Novelette

Description:

This was published around March of 2021. It is a coming of age story about Heart and her father Sonny. They live off grid in a USA which has suffered a lot of environmental damage. They move on every time Sonny fears that God has discovered where they are. So, Sonny is nuts, you may say, early doors. And we learn early on that Heart is covered in scars of old cuts and burns which Sonny admits, with great sorrow, he inflicted on her. What on earth (an anagram of Heart) is going on? Read on …

Author:

This is Price Doom’s first published fiction. He lives in California with his children. When not writing, he teaches math and science to special education students.

Appraisal:

Sonny provides every possible care for his child – even trying to find her friends to play with. But every time they take a step into ‘the real world’, it ends in flight. As a result there is quite a bit of repetition in this short work. However, this reader found the repeated phrases and actions (eg the regular instruction to Heart to pack her three most important things) was a kind of threnody to their lives.

As Heart grows, she becomes disgruntled with Sonny’s explanations for why they live the way they do. It is a hard world for a teenager to live in. Her questions become more searching: his answers satisfy her less. The point of view is largely Heart’s from age 4 to age 15. It is through her eyes we see the rifle taped to the inside of whichever mobile home they’re currently living in, as well as Sonny’s ability to rub an alligator’s belly until it falls asleep and allows him to pick it up and return it to its park. We also catch glimpses of Sonny when Heart is absent, and these tend to provide more puzzles than they solve.

When Heart becomes a teenager she begins to need more than Sonny. And, odd as Sonny may appear, there are echoes of his oddness in the others that Heart corresponds with.

The end appears disastrous. The only saving grace being Sonny’s love for Heart. He puts his life in her hands. And that is where the story ends. You will have to decide for yourself who Sonny really is, and what (if anything) happens next.

Is this worth your time? “You know it, buddy.”

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: **** Four Stars

Reviewed by: Judi Moore

Approximate word count: 18-19,000 words

Review: The Backpack Years by Stefanie Wilson and James Wilson

 Genre: Memoir

Description:

“Straight-laced Stef left America to study abroad in Spain, letting loose and falling head over heels for two things: a handsome local and travel. Travel won out.

James had a ‘slowly-lose-the-will-to-live’ job in England and a future he felt he’d already destroyed. Fueled by crippling debt and a deteriorating relationship with his father, James fled to Australia in search of a better life.

Though their lives are heading in different directions, Stef and James fall in love in Sydney and ditch the carefree single life to forge a path together.

Can the two navigate their way through red-tape, relocation, miscommunication, and a last ditch, make-or-break trip to try to save their relationship, or will this be their last adventure as a couple?

Spanning thirteen countries and four continents, The Backpack Years is a story about how far we’re willing to go to be with the one we love.”

Author:

“Stefanie Wilson was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. Since she was a girl, she has been blonde and ditsy. Her super patient husband has shown her how to use the remote a million times, and she owes him big time. Though a seasoned traveller, her hometown pride and her love of a Primanti's sandwich keep her connected to her roots. She babysits her niece often and patiently makes up treasure hunts to keep her occupied. She currently lives in Pittsburgh with her broodingly handsome husband, James. The Backpack Years is her first published work.”

-Written by James Wilson

“Born in Warrington, England. Since he was a boy, he has been an accident-prone, illness-prone hot mess. His saint-like wife has nursed him back to health countless times, and he owes her big time. He has almost lived more of his life outside Britain than in it, but his love of football and a good fry-up keep him connected to his roots. He calls his mum often and patiently listens to updates on who won bingo. He currently lives in Pittsburgh with his smoking hot wife, Stef. The Backpack Years is his first published work.”

-Written by Stefanie Wilson

Appraisal:

Part memoir, part love story, part travel adventure.

The book alternates chapters written by the two co-authors with the tale told from their point of view. In the beginning they are two separate young adults, each trying to find their way, figuring out who they are and what direction they want to take their life. Then (kind-of-a-spoiler alert) they meet each other, which over time leads them to change and refine their life goals.

Whether you’re a fan of memoirs, real life love stories, or vicarious travel experiences, you’ll find something to like in this book Mixing them all together adds a few twists to the other pieces, resulting in a unique book and an entertaining read.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Some adult language.

Chapters written by James use UK spelling conventions.

Format/Typo Issues:

Review is based on an ARC (advance reader copy) and I can’t judge the final product in this area.

Rating: **** Four Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 90-95,000 words

Reprise Review: The Billionaire Who Wasn't by Beth Orsoff

 

Genre: Romantic Suspense

Description:

 “An ethically-challenged sister . . .

A father who's on the lam . . .

A mother who's barely speaking to her . . .

And a federal agent who wants to bed her . . .

What's a former billionaire's daughter to do?

Nina Roth is having a horrible day. Actually, make that a horrible week. In fact, make it a horrible year. Unemployed? Check. About to be homeless? Check. Father's an international pariah and Nina's guilty by association? Check. What's a former billionaire's daughter to do? The only thing she can--swallow her fear, ignore that little voice inside her head telling her all is not as it seems, and embark on an international manhunt that will either save her life or destroy it, once and for all.”

Author:

An attorney working in the entertainment industry (aka a “Hollywood Lawyer”) by day, Beth Orsoff writes chick lit, romantic comedy, romantic suspense … pretty much anything with humor and romance both in the mix. She lives in Los Angeles where she chases her toddler around in her spare time. Or maybe that's writes in her spare time.

For more, visit Orsoff's website.

Appraisal:

This was a fun read. Part of me liked to imagine the billionaire of the story was Donald Trump. He clearly wasn't, but had a few random things in common with Trump including two daughters with different mothers, the youngest named Tiffany. It was easy and more than a bit fun to imagine an FBI investigation sending him on the run, even though it never did.

Knowing this was romantic suspense meant I thought I knew how some of the story, specifically the romance part, was going to come together, even if I had a hard time seeing how that was going to happen through much of the book. I wasn't exactly wrong about that, but more wrong than right. I was even farther off in how the suspense part of the story was going to conclude. As you might gather, if you like stories to surprise you, taking twists and turns that keep you on your toes, The Billionaire Who Wasn't fits the bill.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Some adult language.

Original review posted on December 30, 2016.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 75-80,000 words