Review: The Potusgeists by Will Worsley

 Genre: Historical Fantasy/Satire

Description:

“The president is seeing ghosts!

Patty Pitypander is in way over her head. Somehow, she won the election—but the Oval Office is not what she expected. Neither are its grumpy ghosts, the Potusgeists, who view her as unqualified to be president.

When she refuses to heed their advice, dead presidents and first ladies spook her from the West Wing to the Blue Room. Blood drips down the walls, phantoms emerge out of nowhere, and William Howard Taft appears in her bathtub—naked!

The ghosts are not the only ones eager to foil her ambitious plans. Traitors lurk among the White House staff, dying to give her back a good stab—if Mrs. Lincoln doesn’t do it first.

Caught in a power struggle between the living and the dead, Patty must prove herself to both, or she’ll lose the presidency. Can she save herself in time?”

Author:

“Will Worsley began writing fiction full-time in 2016, after careers in publishing and investment management. As an editor at Time-Life Books, he wrote and edited articles on popular non-fiction topics ranging from history to home repair. As a money manager, he oversaw portfolios for large institutions and got the idea for his first satirical novel, Investing in Vain, named a top 10 business book of 2017 by Wealth Management magazine. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia, where he earned master’s degrees in English and business. Visit his website at willworsley.com”

Appraisal:

A different (at least from what I normally read), amusing, entertaining, and sometimes frustrating read. The frustrating part is that Patty Pitypander is, if not the most incompetent president ever (regardless of who you might think is next worst) then she’s got to be close. It’s not that she’s not capable. More that her priorities are messed up. But luckily the White House is full of spirits (okay, we’ll call them ghosts) of many presidents and first ladies who came before her. They’re there to help, whether she likes it or not. Will Patty get it together? Will she be able to deal with things, other than ghosts, who complicate things even more? It makes for a fun read that will keep you guessing.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

Format/Typo Issues:

Review is based on an advance reviewer copy, so I can’t gauge the final product in this area.

Rating: **** Four Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 75-80,000 words

Reprise Review: The Dreamt Child / Yvonne Hertzberger

Reviewed by: ?wazithinkin

Genre: Epic Fantasy / Historical Fantasy

Approximate word count: 90-95,000 words

Availability    

Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: YES Smashwords: YES  Paper: YES

Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

Yvonne Hertzberger is a native of the Netherlands who now resides in Stratford, Ontario with her spouse in a 130 year old brick cottage. She is an alumna of The University of Waterloo, with a B.A. in psychology and an Hon. B.A. in Sociology. She has always been an avid student of human behavior and this is what gives her insights into the characters she develops in her writing.

This third book in her Earth's Pendulum series completes the original trilogy. Ms. Hertzberger is also a contributing author on the staff of Indies Unlimited. 

Learn more about her at her website.

Description:

“Liannis, the goddess Earth’s seer, can no longer deny the meaning of her recurring dream. She must join with Merrist, her devoted hired man, and bear a child – one with great gifts. Earth has decreed it. But the people resist the changes, bringing danger to the pair and strife to the lands. Both Liannis and Merrist must face tests, sometimes without each other, to fulfill their destiny and bring The Dreamt Child forth into safety. They must succeed if they are to initiate the new era of peace and balance so desperately needed.”

Appraisal:

At last the goddess Earth speaks more directly to Liannis and she has to come to terms and acknowledge her feelings for Merrist!  I was so ready for this, but Merrist is the one who has to broach the subject because Liannis is still reluctant. I suppose she has just cause because it will be their job to gain acceptance for their relationship with all the inhabitants of the One Isle. To help Merrist the Earth goddess bestows him with a gift that Liannis does not possess. Which works out rather nicely when they are visiting Gharn and a tragedy befalls Lady Sienna. But I'll be darned if no sooner than they are together they are both summoned by Earth to different dioceses, what rotten luck!  So Merrist heads to help Lionn track down a notorious traitor and appoint a new Lord in Catania, while Liannis is sent to Leithe to assist a transitioning lordship there.

The plot moves steadily forward and there is a lot of traveling between the different kingdoms as our players deal with treacherous political posturing, treason, terrorism, and tragedy to start, then eventually triumph, celebrations and much joy. It seems the One Isle is finally achieving some balance, and Liannis and Merrist are allowed a reprieve. They move back to Liannis's childhood home to await the birth of the dreamt child, along with Brensa who is still desperately mourning Klast.

There is a nice twist at the end of this story that I wasn't expecting after the trials and tribulations of these dioceses. It seems that the Earth goddess is very happy and things are changing for several of One Isles inhabitants. However we all know the pendulum will never stop swinging. This is quite an epic. Well done, Ms. Hertzberger.

FYI:

I think reading the first two novels of this trilogy will enrich your enjoyment of this story.

Format/Typo Issues:

A small number of editing errors.

Rating: ***** Five stars

Cobweb Bride (Cobweb Bride Trilogy) / Vera Nazarian

Reviewed by: ?wazithinkin

Genre: Epic Historical Fantasy / Paranormal Romance

Approximate word count: 100-105,000 words

Availability    

Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: YES  Smashwords: YES  Paper: YES

Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

“Vera Nazarian is a two-time Nebula Award Nominee, award-winning artist, and member of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, a writer and reader with a penchant for moral fables and stories of intense wonder, true love, and intricacy.”

Ms. Nazarian “lives in a small town in Vermont, and uses her Armenian sense of humor and her Russian sense of suffering to bake conflicted pirozhki and make art.”  The second book in her Cobweb Trilogy, Cobweb Empire, is available now and Cobweb Forest will be released this December. To learn more about Ms. Nazarian check out her website.

Description:

“Many are called... She alone can save the world and become Death's bride. Cobweb Bride is a history-flavored fantasy novel with romantic elements of the Persephone myth, about Death's ultimatum to the world. In an alternate Renaissance world, somewhere in an imaginary ’pocket’ of Europe called the Kingdom of Lethe, Death comes, in the form of a grim Spaniard, to claim his Bride. Until she is found, in a single time-stopping moment all dying stops. There is no relief for the mortally wounded and the terminally ill.” 

Appraisal:

This book and I got off on a rocky start. The premise sounded intriguing to me so I picked it up.  The problem I had with it was the over description of every tiny detail. I got lost in all the words, they were good words, well written poetic words. There was just too much time spent on every detail and my head was swimming with unnecessary words that didn't move the story forward. Three different kingdoms in the Imperial Realm are examined in minute detail.

In Lethe, the old Queen lies on her deathbed unable to die. Death appears and states his plea for his Cobweb Bride to the Prince. The Prince sends out a decree in search of the Cobweb Bride, all families must send a daughter of marriageable age to Death's Keep that stands in the Northern Forest.

On the frozen lake of Merlait to the north there is a battle raging between the forces of Duke Ian Chidair, known as Hoarfrost, and the armies of his neighbor, the Duke Vitalio Goraque. From a single moment on all the causalities become the walking dead, including both Dukes. Hoarfrost is unwilling to give up his status because he is undead and begins a campaign to capture the jail the girls who have been ordered to seek Death's Keep in an attempt to prevent Death from finding his Cobweb bride as a way to keep his dead self undead.

Death's third stop was a poor dwelling in the Dukedom of Goraque where a peasant woman lay dying. Percy's grandmother, whose whole history is given. Persephone is described as a somewhat dull-witted, slow, sickly anemic, plain, unbecoming, and willful. She becomes our heroine as she leads a band of girls to Death's Keep. This small band of girls is where the story finally gets interesting as we follow them on their trek to Death's Keep. They are joined by her Imperial Highness, the Infanta Claere Liguon, the princess and Heir to the Realm, who has been murdered by Marquis Vlau Fiomarre. The Marquis, in a twisted sense of duty, also accompanies Claere in order to protect her. I found this Stockholm type syndrome to be quite disturbing as they are becoming quite fond of each other.

Here is an example of one sentence that shows the author’s writing style and the relationship developing between the living Vlau and the dead Claere.

And now, here he was, and here she was, and it seemed at rather odd moments that the carriage was closing in on him, on her, and they were sharply aware of one another again, relieving that moment of greatest closeness and intensity, the stroke of death, the drawing of life that bound them together.

Hmmm, I seem to have captured a typo here also. I do believe the word “relieving” is meant to be “reliving”. There are a small number of proofing errors that didn't detract from the story overall. What was aggravating was the loose story ends that were not addressed. I can only suppose that they will be picked up and explained later in the trilogy, but with as much jumping around as there is in this book why even bring them up at this point at all?

My assessment is that as the author became more comfortable with her story the writing improved. I think much of the set-up could have been handled in flashbacks and improved the flow of the story. Ms. Nazarian also took an interesting aspect of death to the extreme by including crops and livestock in her no-death scheme. As the stores of past harvests were depleted the newest grains became tasteless and the meat from the livestock never died or cooked properly. It was all rather chilling to read.

What will be interesting now is to see how our heroine Percy, who develops a strange connection with Death himself after reaching the Keep, goes about finding the true Cobweb Bride. It seems that Death can't see her because she contains a piece of him, however, Percy will be able to. Out of her small group she is the only one who could actually see Death and communicate with him. She is not the incompetent that her family saw her as. She has caught the eye of Beltain, the son of the Duke known as Hoarfrost. The quest for the Cobweb Bride is now on with Percy leading the way and Beltain at her side.

FYI:

Originally written for Awesome Trilogies and Series book blog.

Format/Typo Issues:

There are a small number of proofing errors.

Rating: *** Three Stars

The Dreamt Child / Yvonne Hertzberger

Reviewed by: ?wazithinkin

Genre: Epic Fantasy / Historical Fantasy

Approximate word count: 90-95,000 words

Availability    

Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: NO Smashwords: NO  Paper: YES

Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

Yvonne Hertzberger is a native of the Netherlands who now resides in Stratford, Ontario with her spouse in a 130 year old brick cottage. She is an alumna of The University of Waterloo, with a B.A. in psychology and an Hon. B.A. in Sociology. She has always been an avid student of human behavior and this is what gives her insights into the characters she develops in her writing.

This third book in her Earth's Pendulum series completes the original trilogy. Ms. Hertzberger is also a contributing author on the staff of Indies Unlimited. 

Learn more about her at her website.

Description:

“Liannis, the goddess Earth’s seer, can no longer deny the meaning of her recurring dream. She must join with Merrist, her devoted hired man, and bear a child – one with great gifts. Earth has decreed it. But the people resist the changes, bringing danger to the pair and strife to the lands. Both Liannis and Merrist must face tests, sometimes without each other, to fulfill their destiny and bring The Dreamt Child forth into safety. They must succeed if they are to initiate the new era of peace and balance so desperately needed.”

Appraisal:

At last the goddess Earth speaks more directly to Liannis and she has to come to terms and acknowledge her feelings for Merrist!  I was so ready for this, but Merrist is the one who has to broach the subject because Liannis is still reluctant. I suppose she has just cause because it will be their job to gain acceptance for their relationship with all the inhabitants of the One Isle. To help Merrist the Earth goddess bestows him with a gift that Liannis does not possess. Which works out rather nicely when they are visiting Gharn and a tragedy befalls Lady Sienna. But I'll be darned if no sooner than they are together they are both summoned by Earth to different dioceses, what rotten luck!  So Merrist heads to help Lionn track down a notorious traitor and appoint a new Lord in Catania, while Liannis is sent to Leithe to assist a transitioning lordship there.

The plot moves steadily forward and there is a lot of traveling between the different kingdoms as our players deal with treacherous political posturing, treason, terrorism, and tragedy to start, then eventually triumph, celebrations and much joy. It seems the One Isle is finally achieving some balance, and Liannis and Merrist are allowed a reprieve. They move back to Liannis's childhood home to await the birth of the dreamt child, along with Brensa who is still desperately mourning Klast.

There is a nice twist at the end of this story that I wasn't expecting after the trials and tribulations of these dioceses. It seems that the Earth goddess is very happy and things are changing for several of One Isles inhabitants. However we all know the pendulum will never stop swinging. This is quite an epic. Well done, Ms. Hertzberger.

FYI:

I think reading the first two novels of this trilogy will enrich your enjoyment of this story.

Format/Typo Issues:

A small number of editing errors.

Rating: ***** Five stars

Through Kestrel's Eyes (Earth's Pendulum) / Yvonne Hertzberger

Reviewed by: ?wazithinkin

Genre: Epic Fantasy / Historical Fantasy

Approximate word count: 110-115,000 words

Availability    

Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: YES  Smashwords: YES  Paper: YES

Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

Yvonne Hertzberger is a native of the Netherlands who now resides in Stratford, Ontario with her spouse in a 130 year old brick cottage. She is an alumna of The University of Waterloo, with a B.A. in psychology and an Hon. B.A. in Sociology. She has always been an avid student of human behavior and this is what gives her insights into the characters she develops in her writing.

Her first Old World Fantasy novel Back From Chaos: Book One of Earth's Pendulum was published in 2009. The second volume Through Kestrel's Eyes is currently available. The third book in the planned trilogy "The Dreamt Child" is pending. Ms. Hertzberger is also a contributing author on the staff of Indies Unlimited. Learn more about her at her website.

Description:

“Through Kestrel’s Eyes, the sequel to Back From Chaos in the Earth’s Pendulum trilogy begins seventeen years later. The peace that followed the end of the Red Plague is shattered when the lords of Gharn and Leith are toppled by traitors, throwing the land into chaos.

Liannis, the goddess Earth’s seer, her apprenticeship interrupted by the death of her mentor, must help restore the Balance. Until it is, Earth’s power is weakened, preventing Earth from sustaining the rains needed for good harvests. Drought and famine result.

Liannis battles self-doubt and the lure of forbidden romance and deep loss as she faces tests that take her to the brink of her endurance. 

But Earth sends a kestrel that allows Liannis to see with her eyes and a white horse to carry her, both with the ability to mind-speak. 

Time is short. The people will starve if Earth cannot heal and the Balance cannot be restored.”

Appraisal:

With this installment, the Earth’s Pendulum series has turned into a sweeping epic, as we are following the political workings of at least three different demesnes (kingdoms). Bargia and Catania are doing well, with strong leadership and good harvests; Gaelen has proven to be a good king. Liethe, however, has been overtaken by a ruthless overlord, and Liannis has succeeded in spiriting the remaining family away into safe houses.  Gharn’s leadership is threatened by traitors and Lord Dugal pleas with Bargia for assistance in regaining his deposed title. Gaelen must choose which problem to address first while trying to prepare for the impending famine caused by the on-going drought.

We are told this story through the eyes of Liannis, who has been thrust into her seer position too soon, after all, she is only seventeen. However, Earth is the most important character in this story. Leithe ends up being a festering boil that affects all the surrounding kingdoms as Earth is the living embodiment that these kingdoms live on. As a result the whole One Isle suffers from drought and Liannis must figure out how to cleanse and heal Earth with Gaelen’s help to restore the sociological balance of the inhabitants. 

I found a couple significant editing issues. At the beginning of the story Gaelen’s inner council room in Bargia is booby-trapped and that issue was never resolved, the problem was just dropped. Secondly, there were so many players and kingdoms that even the author gets confused at one point; Klast was not sent to Leithe, but to Gharn. It was hard to keep track of these and when this happened it threw me out of the story because I had to go back and check whether I was mistaken or not.

The environmental topic is timely and the series name, Earth's Pendulum, is intelligently relevant. The implications of this story should be heeded. This book has it all: conflict, strife, mystery, politics, drama, heartbreak, tragedy, and joy. I could have used a little more romance, but that is just me. I do feel like that will happen in the next story, which I am looking forward to despite the issues I had with this installment.

FYI:

I would highly recommend reading Back From Chaos (the book in the Earth’s Pendulum trilogy) first.

Format/Typo Issues:

A small number of copyediting and proofing issues.

Rating: *** Three stars

Back From Chaos (Earth's Pendulum) / Yvonne Hertzberger

Reviewed by: ?wazithinkin

Genre: Epic Fantasy / Historical Fantasy

Approximate word count: 110-115,000 words

Availability    

Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: YES  Smashwords: YES  Paper: YES

Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

Yvonne Hertzberger is a native of the Netherlands who now resides in Stratford, Ontario with her spouse in a 130 year old brick cottage. She is an alumna of The University of Waterloo, with a B.A. in psychology and an Hon. B.A. in Sociology. She has always been an avid student of human behavior and this is what gives her insights into the characters she develops in her writing.

Her first Old World Fantasy novel Back From Chaos: Book One of Earth's Pendulum was published in 2009. The second volume Through Kestrel's Eyes is currently available. The third book in the planned trilogy "The Dreamt Child" is pending. Ms. Hertzberger is also a contributing author on the staff of Indies Unlimited. Learn more about her at her website.

Description:

“Klast, loner, assassin and spy, has no idea that his destiny is linked to the maid he is sent to rescue. But even before he can fulfill it he must wrestle with his own demons, and help Lord Gaelen unmask a traitor. Failure will upset the Balance that Earth, goddess, needs to provide good harvests, health and peace.

 
Earth has shown Liethis, true seer, that unless Klast completes his missions, more catastrophes, like the Red Fever that ravages the population, will follow. Time is short.”

Appraisal:

This is an engrossing story that includes war, espionage, politics, spirituality, and a bit of romance to boot. There are several characters in this book that are listed at the beginning. I found this list intimidating but plowed ahead hoping I could keep up with all of them. The story centers on Gaelen, second son of the King of Bargia, who is thrust into power after the death of the king and his oldest son during a battle at the beginning of the story, and his advisors. As the characters were brought into play, I had no problem keeping up with them and the roles they played. The main characters are all well developed and easily believable. The matters of state which Gaelen had to deal with were tedious to me but essential to the story over all.

There are no fantasy creatures in this story; the only magical element was perhaps the spiritual belief that we ourselves affect our environment and the world as a whole. Oh, well, there was a prophetess, a true seer who Gaelen called upon occasionally. If you enjoy the political workings of a society, spy games, mercenaries, and mistresses I believe you will enjoy this story as well. The plot moves along at a nice pace encompassing all matters of this demesne (the term for the land under control of a lord) and those surrounding it.

What captivated me was the relationship between Klast, the king’s assassin, and Brensa, a lady in waiting. Both are badly broken souls that need healing and whose futures seem to hold dominion over the prosperity of the kingdom as a whole. I found it fascinating and their journey became very important to me. I do tend to get involved in the emotional aspects of the characters I read; this is where I think any story’s strength lie. Ms. Hertzberger was able to capture and express the emotions of all her characters, be it love or treachery, throughout the entire novel. This books storyline is complete; there were no cliff-hangers to draw you into the next book, although I am very interested to see what happens next. This is a great story on all levels.  

FYI:

British spelling and some ‘Old World’ word usage.  

Format/Typo Issues:

A small number of proofing errors were noted.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

The Legacy / Jill Rowan

Reviewed by: Pete Barber

Genre: Historical fantasy/Science Fiction

Approximate word count: 85,000-90,000 words

Availability    

Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: YES  Smashwords: NO Paper: YES

Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

Jill Rowan lives in Shropshire, England. The Legacy is her debut novel.

Description:

Fallady Galbraith feels her life is going nowhere. So, when the woman who ran the orphanage where Fallady spent her childhood dies and leaves her a cottage in rural Wales, she takes a chance, leaves London and moves in. When she awakes on her first morning in the cottage, a matronly cook is preparing breakfast on the woodstove in the kitchen while the woman’s husband is clearing the garden. These two turn out to be ghosts of a sort, and when Fallady tries to learn more about them, she finds herself sucked into their time-warped world.

Appraisal:

Some stories are easily categorized; this isn’t one of them. I empathized with Fallady when I was first introduced to her, living and working in 2012-London, full of self-doubt and dissatisfied with her lot in life. Joining Fallady on her journey to the Welsh cottage and experiencing her discomfort with the locals and her trepidation at living alone miles from nowhere in an old cottage with erratic electrical supply was fun and believable. The two ghosts were an interesting and unexpected twist.

On a personal note, if I found someone to cook and clean and tend the garden for no payment, I’d be more excited about the prospect than Fallady appeared to be. In fact, I’d try my best to make sure they never left J. However, that wouldn’t make much of a story, so I don’t blame her for trying to find out who they were and why they existed.

Fallady’s investigation leads her to the remains of the local village that was destroyed by an earthquake in 1796. While nosing around the ruins, she falls through a wormhole and lands in a snowdrift in 1776.

About half of the story takes place in 1776. Fallady, a feminist and atheist, is taken in by the village pastor. The story focusses on her attempts to function in technologically-primitive Welsh feudal society. On one hand, I enjoyed seeing the eighteenth century through her eyes, on the other, the willingness of the locals to accept her modern ideas, speech, and ways, often stretched my sense of disbelief. Overall, though, this segment of the story worked for me, and I enjoyed it.

When she and the pastor fall though another wormhole and return to 2012, the reversal—seeing the twentieth century through the pastor’s eighteenth-century eyes—didn’t work so well. Mainly, I guess, because I had to learn about the eighteenth century, whereas I know what a computer and a car look like, so it wasn’t possible for me to engage as though I were seeing them for the first time.

Also, the explanation for the time-warp (details avoided to prevent a spoiler) didn’t work for me. It seemed a little trite and too convenient.

So, as I said to open, this is a difficult story to evaluate. Jill Rowan’s writing is clean and well structured, especially for a debut novel. Fallady was a well-drawn character and her love affair was tenderly treated. I didn’t skip-read, except for the short section with the pastor in the modern world, so the story kept me engaged. But there were too few surprises and too little tension. The main characters knew what would happen (because of time travel) and mostly fulfilled their predestined lives, and the ancillary characters, in both eras, seemed to accept ghosts and time travelers with little surprise or doubt.

Perhaps the cross-genre nature of the story: historical fiction (including a love affair that has to negotiate bustles, stays, and men’s wigs), but also sci-fi/fantasy with time travel and some elements of parallel existence, is too big a challenge. I struggled to get engaged with the sci-fi (because that’s closer to my sweet spot and I’m more knowledgeable). And, although I enjoyed the eighteenth century scenes, I wonder if those readers who love historical fiction might find them unsatisfying?

Format/Typo Issues:

None noted.

Rating: *** Three stars