Reviewed by: BigAl
Genre: Thriller
Approximate word count: 95-100,000 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 stores
Author:
Edward G. Talbot is the pen name used for the collaboration of two authors, Ed Parrot and Jason Derrig.
Parrot is an avid runner, cyclist, and race-walker who competed with the United States team in the 50km event at the 2005 Pan-American Race Walking Cup. He lives with his wife and daughter in Florida where he works as a computer programmer and web developer.
Derrig lives in Maine with his wife and two daughters. He is an active cyclist and skier and works for a national restaurant chain.
The Talbot collaboration has written another novel, Alive from New York, a terrorism thriller and two short story sets (three stories each) – A Funny Pair of Shorts which is humorous and A Horrifying Pair of Shorts which is horror, obviously. For more information, visit their website.
Description:
In the 1960s a group of the world’s most powerful and wealthy men study the evidence and come to a conclusion. Global warming has advanced too far to reverse. Their solution: cover-ups and a plan to save the chosen few.
Appraisal:
When I was young, one of my Uncles was heavily involved in an extreme rightwing organization. Even at a tender age, I thought their conspiracy theories were farfetched. Among other things, they thought a cabal of rich and powerful with ulterior motives controlled the United States government. But what if this was true? New World Orders explores this possibility. Maybe we should have been wearing tinfoil hats after all.
New World Orders follows Jack Crowley, an editor for a National Enquirer like tabloid, and Jim Patterson, a Washington, DC police detective, who together first uncover the conspiracy in the 1980s. The authors do well weaving actual world events within their story. In the book, these events happen for different reasons than the media reported and are often faked. Some are events conspiracy theorists would have us believe weren’t what they seemed. This makes the story more believable since the events are real. The main characters are the kind of people a reader will naturally be pulling for, even Jack Crowley, the tabloid reporter.
I also found myself laughing as the authors spice up the story with real people we might not expect. Among others, Elvis has a cameo and, for those quick enough to spot it, there is a brief appearance by a Mayor-to-be of Las Vegas. Thriller fans should find New World Orders a great escape.
Format/Typo Issues:
No significant issues.
Rating: **** Four stars
The five winners of an ebook copy of William L.K.'s "Eye of the Storm" are:
Paul Callaghan
Darlene Underdahl
Symese123
Chris (posted 6/6 on the review of "Eye of the Storm"
Paul Ellis
To claim your prize email me at BooksAndPals (at) Yahoo (dot) com. Be sure to specify your preference of format (Kindle or ePub suitable for Nook and many other eReaders).
Thanks to William L.K. and his publisher, sci-fi-cafe.com, for sponsoring this giveaway.
Genre: Paranormal
Approximate word count: 115-120,000 words
Availability
Kindle US: YES UK: YES Nook: YES Smashwords: YES Paper: NO
Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords stores
Author:
Glen Bullion currently resides in Maryland, where he devotes his time to reading, writing, gaming, three cats, and a wife, though not necessarily in that order. His first novel, Demonspawn, was released in 2010, and his second, Dead Living, has recently been made available and is busily tallying positive reviews over at Amazon.com. For more information, visit his website.
Description:
Alex Teague is a cheerfully unremarkable young man with a pleasant but unremarkable life: a loving family, an average job, and a circle of close friends that includes the stunning but seemingly unattainable Cindy, his confidante since childhood. All is perfectly, predictably normal… until an unexpected exorcism leads to the startling revelation that he is, in fact, half demon. Will Alex be able to adjust to the host of supernatural powers that such a pedigree entails in time to avert an impending catastrophe, or will his battle with this new identity cost him his old life?
Appraisal:
Author Greg Bullion paints a convincing portrait of the paranormal Everyman; Alex is basically Peter Parker, if Uncle Ben had instead remarked that with great power comes people trying to kill you. The characters are drawn with obvious affection, and their overwhelming likability kept me reading through segments that I would otherwise have found tedious – Alex is, after all, still raw and inexperienced, and has a young man’s tendency to pine and dwell and overlook the obvious. The earlier events are fraught and tense, and there is a nice focus on mood and setting, before the novel takes off for its amped up second act, and a lot of the ambience is set aside in favor of action. While both halves are well done, I was left with the distinct impression that I was reading two separate novels, held together with tenuous strands of ghostly glue. There are more than enough good ideas in here to warrant a sequel, so I question the need to have them all in one book.
FYI:
While there is fairly extensive use of profanity and frequent mild sexuality, it never feels crass or vulgar, and adds a touch of authenticity to the protagonist’s mental monologues. The characters are in their early twenties, and they speak and act accordingly. For this reason, combined with some brief but graphic demonic encounters, I would caution parents against purchasing this book for those on the younger end of the Young Adult spectrum.
Format/Typo Issues:
A few simple typos are sprinkled throughout, but the author’s website informs me that he’s in the midst of a secondary edit that should eliminate the bulk of these.
Rating: **** Four stars
Reviewed by: BigAl
Genre: Gothic Romantic Comedy
Approximate word count: 50-55,000 words
Availability
Kindle: US YES UK: YES Nook: NO Smashwords: YES Paper: NO
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Author:
An aspiring writer from an early age, Kate Hamilton grew up in London. After living around the world, she has now settled in Scotland. This is her only book currently available for your Kindle. For more, visit her website.
Description:
A gothic romance set in modern times. Without her knowledge or consent, Lauren MacBreach’s parents arrange her marriage to a Scottish Laird. Although a little on the old side, he’s rich, lives in a castle, and isn’t that bad looking. If only someone wasn’t trying to kill her.
Appraisal:
Trying to formulate my thoughts on this book has been difficult. If you aren’t familiar with the definition of a gothic romance, I found the explanation on this website helpful. Blood Line combines many of the typical elements of a gothic romance with some of the elements of a romantic comedy. It still has castles, but it is set in modern times. For another twist the protagonist Lauren’s guardian angel, a novice at the job, keeps popping in to help.
While a strange combination of gothic, romantic-comedy, and whatever genre a guardian angel fits, maybe supernatural, the story is fun, different, and creative. The setting for most of the book, a Scottish castle, is foreign to the American born Lauren and gives plenty of comedic opportunities as she deals with differences in culture and custom. After a warning from her guardian angel, Lauren is constantly trying to decipher potential hidden agendas, decide who is friend or foe, and working to figure out how to escape her strange situation.
I expect many readers who find what I’ve described appealing would be happy reading Blood Line. I wasn’t for two reasons, both items that bothered me early on that I was never able to get past.
The first is a matter of language. If you’ve been following my reviews, you’ll know I believe if you’re English speaking you should be able to adapt to variations in spelling and word usage. I believe an Aussie author writing about characters and events in Australia using the spelling conventions and local slang of their home country adds to the reading experience. The same rule goes for someone who is British, Canadian, or any other country. If the usage fits the character and locale, I’m happy.
Since most of the events in Blood Line take place in Scotland and most of the characters are from there I shouldn’t have any issues with spelling and language consistent with Scotland. I don’t with the exception of Lauren. Knowing she was an American I found myself questioning dialog that didn’t ring true. Sometimes it was the syntax, correct, but not how a character with Lauren’s background would speak. Other times it was the use of a specific word. One example is Lauren referring to the restroom as “the loo” multiple times before she’d even set foot in Scotland. Virtually no eighteen-year-old American girl is going to use that word habitually.
The other thing I had a hard time with was the idea that a mother and father would arrange a marriage without their daughter’s knowledge or consent and essentially arrange for her kidnapping to carry out that arrangement. In another time, place, or maybe just a set of parents with a different situation than Lauren’s I might have been able to suspend my disbelief. In this instance, I wasn’t able. An arranged marriage, while not completely unheard of, is very rare in modern America. If you have a hard time understanding how I can believe the guardian angel and not this part, I’m aware of the inconsistency.
FYI:
The author uses British spelling conventions and turns of phrase.
Format/Typo Issues:
A moderate number of typos, word usage, and formatting issues.
Rating: *** Three stars
Reviewed by: BigAl
Genre: Thriller
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 stores
Author:
A life-long Red Sox fan, newspaper sportswriter Sean Sweeney lives in North Central Massachusetts. When not covering Fitchburg High School sports or writing his latest novel, this prolific author can be found trying to pass himself off as a Brit in the Kindle forum on Amazon UK, obsessively tweeting, and playing with Carmel the Wonder Cat. His favorite hobby is napping.
Description:
With heightened security, the 2012 London Olympics were going to be the safest ever. When terrorists bomb Wembley Stadium during the Olympic soccer tournament and an al-Qaeda agent claims responsibility, the President of the United States volunteers ace CIA operative Jaclyn Johnson to help MI5 root out the terrorists and save the games.
Appraisal:
We first met Johnson, a female James Bond, in Model Agent. As with Bond, Johnson has a technologically advanced bag of tricks and seems ready for anything. Bond’s villains are often over-the-top, almost enough to consider satire; such was the case with the villain in Model Agent. In Rogue Agent the villains are all too possible. Although bin Laden is dead, the organization he headed continues. The plot the terrorists have in this story, while ambitious, is far from unimaginable.
In this second book of the Jaclyn Johnson, code name Snapshot series, Sweeney takes us on a fast paced thrill ride as Jaclyn tries to stop additional terrorist attacks and bring those responsible to justice. I found Rogue Agent an even better read than Model Agent. Jaclyn is more emotionally involved in this case because her parents had died in the al-Qaeda attacks on 9/11. Her reactions to the events in Rogue Agent made me feel as if I was getting to know the character better. The political ramifications of a US agent operating on foreign soil assisting the British intelligence service made for a complex, yet more realistic plot. For several hours of action packed escapism, it doesn’t get much better than Rogue Agent.
Format/Typo Issues:
As a beta reader I evaluated based on a pre-publication version and can’t evaluate the final version in this area.
Rating: ***** Five stars
Reviewed by: Em
Genre: Speculative Fiction/Humor
Approximate word count: 25-30,000
Availability
Kindle: YES UK: YES Nook: YES Smashwords: NO Paper: NO
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Author:
Tim W. Burke is a highly secretive author with negligible biographical information online. For publication and appearance information, see author’s blog.
Description:
This is a collection of previously published short stories based on humorous takes on tropes from various sub-genres of speculative fiction.
Appraisal:
I’ve always been a fan of unusual interpretations of common themes. This collection includes some entertaining, satirical takes on speculative fiction/horror, including vampires/blood sucking fiends, immortality, zombies, ghosts, and the philosopher’s stone.
A short story is the distillation of an idea to its purest form, often with little regard to plot or characterization. While these stories do emphasize the unique ideas they’re exploring, the characters are engaging and the concepts are often suitable for extension in subsequent stories rather than being closed off.
Overall I found this collection to be highly enjoyable, though purists may not appreciate some of Burke’s takes on the tropes.
Format/Typo Issues:
No significant issues
Rating: **** Four Stars
Reviewed by: BigAl
Genre: Romance
Approximate word count: 50-55,000 words
Availability
Kindle US: YES UK: YES Nook: YES Smashwords: YES Paper: NO
Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords stores
Author:
Under her own name and the pen name Donna Clayton, Donna Fasano has written over thirty published novels with sales in excess of 3.5 million copies. Many of these novels have gone out of print with the rights reverting to Fasano. She is giving them a facelift and republishing them for your favorite eReader. Return of the Runaway Bride was originally published in 1994.
Fasano has two grown sons and lives with her husband on the eastern seaboard of the United States. For more, visit her website.
Description:
Before Julia Roberts starred as Maggie Carpenter in the movie Runaway Bride there was Savanna Langford. Already in her wedding dress, Savanna tells her Mother, “I can’t do this.” She flees the wedding and Fulton, her small hometown. Six years later and now a successful businesswoman, Savanna buys her parents house after they retire to warmer climes. She returns, claiming she is there to fix up her new investment as a rental property and hopefully make peace with those she abandoned when she left.
Appraisal:
In the author’s note, Fasano says this book was inspired by an elevator ride she shared with a bride-to-be and her mother who had just picked up a bridal gown. The daughter told her mother, “I just don’t think I can go through with this” and Fasano took it from there. With the pressure of wedding preparations, the commitments implied, and what they might be giving up, getting cold feet on the cusp of the wedding is common.
Although acting on those concerns is rare, Savanna’s reasons made sense. She felt going from her parent’s care straight to marriage, especially to someone like her fiancé Danny who is on the verge of joining his father’s law practice, would preclude her from ever becoming independent. If only she’d thought of this sooner. Of course, had she done that, we wouldn’t have much of a story.
What I enjoyed about Return of the Runaway Bride was the premise, since it is something many have considered, and an exploration of the potential repercussions. Although it does have the required happily-ever-after ending, getting there is far from easy. It also depicts the advantages of small town life, with their extensive informal support systems, and the disadvantages due to gossip and everyone knowing your business.
FYI:
Although implied rather than explicit, Return of the Runaway Bride has some sexual content. It is most suitable for ages 17 and up.
Format/Typo Issues:
No significant issues.
Rating: ***** Five stars
We have five copies of Eye of the Storm, the first book of the Stritonly Chronicles by William L.K., to giveaway, compliments of the author and his publisher, sci-fi-cafe.com. Winner will be able to chose between MOBI format (for Kindle and apps) or ePub (suitable for Nook and many other readers).
The rules to enter are simple.
One entry per person.
Enter by leaving a non-anonymous comment on this post or on our review of the book between 10 AM Eastern on June 4, 2011 and 11:59 PM Eastern June 11, 2011. Because Blogger currently has a bug which is preventing some users from leaving comments an alternative entry method is to send an email with the subject "Eye of the Storm Giveaway Entry" to BooksAndPals (at) Yahoo (dot) Com during the same period.
Winners will be notified by a post on June 12, 2011 and will have until Midnight, June 18, 2011 to claim their prize by sending an email to BooksAndPals (at) Yahoo (dot) Com identifying yourself as the winner and indicating your format preference (MOBI or ePub). If you don't currently follow BooksAndPals via the methods available we advise you begin doing so by selecting one or more of the available methods on the right side of this page (twitter, Facebook, Google Friend Connect, RSS feed, or email) so you'll be sure not to miss out.
The fine print
Winners will be selected randomly.
Odds of winning will depend on the number of entries.
Failure to claim the prize by the stated deadline will forfeit the prize.
Reviewers for BigAl's Books and Pals, the author, or employees of the publisher and their immediate families are not eligible.
Genre: Non-fiction/Biography
Approximate word count: 60-65,000 Words
Availability Kindle: YES Nook: NO Paper: NO
Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon or B&N store
Author:
Michael Harris was a public relations executive at the CBS Television network for many years, eleven of these assigned to The Ed Sullivan Show. He was the first person to greet the Beatles on their first visit to the United States. Michael is married to novelist Ruth Harris and has one other book available for your Kindle, The Atomic Times: My H-Bomb Year at the Pacific Proving Ground, a memoir of his military service.
Description:
Originally published in hardcover and paperback in 1969 as Always on Sunday, Ed Sullivan An Inside View, this re-released Kindle version has some additional material added. The new subtitle, An Inside View of Ed Sullivan, the Beatles, Elvis, Sinatra & Ed’s Other Guests, is also a more complete explanation of the content.
Appraisal:
Ed Sullivan’s variety show was an American institution, running Sunday nights for twenty-three years, from the dawn of television in 1948 until 1971. Even relatively young readers have probably seen clips of Sullivan introducing Elvis Presley, the Beatles, or saying, “We’ve got a really big shew.” Always on Sunday gives us a broad view of Sullivan, who turns out much more complex than I would have guessed. Some stories you might have heard for years are debunked - not all of Elvis’ appearance were from the waist up for example. Although the book focuses on the period from the debut of The Toast of the Town (the original name of the show) until the late-60s, when the book was originally published, it gives a decent overview of his life prior to the show and insight into what made Sullivan tick. For example, he was an early supporter of equal rights and booked appearances by stars regardless of race when that was uncommon.
One part of the book I found interesting was Sullivan’s reaction to television critics. Many of his reviews were negative and he was prone to react with a scathing letter in response. Many of these were long while others were succinct. One rather pointed response to syndicated columnist Harriet Van Horne read only: “Dear Miss Van Horne, You bitch. Sincerely, Ed Sullivan.”
I did wonder how many people would actually be interested in learning more about Sullivan. I’m no spring chicken and was a month shy of becoming a teen when the show went off the air. Although I didn’t watch The Ed Sullivan Show as a kid (blame it on overly religious parents who banned Sunday television watching) I was still well aware of Sullivan and his place in pop culture. When I asked my twenty-something daughter if she knew who Sullivan was she said: “Yes I do. He had a variety type show with musical guests, some of which included Elvis, the Beatles, and the Doors.” She’d be disappointed; the book doesn’t mention the appearance by The Doors (this would have happened after the original publication of the book) but it seems Sullivan’s legacy is still known among younger generations. Anyone interested in pop culture history or the early days of television should find Always on Sunday an enlightening and entertaining read.
Format/Typo Issues:
No significant issues.
Rating: **** Four stars
The June issue of Words With Jam magazine is now available with an option to download for free.
This issue has an interview with J.K. Rowling and (our reason for pointing it out) an article by BigAl.
