Review Wednesday: Dread Nation by Justina Ireland (#1)

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Dread Nation #1 (planned duology as of this date)

Blurb:
"Jane McKeene was born two days before the dead began to walk the battlefields of Gettysburg and Chancellorsville—derailing the War Between the States and changing America forever. In this new nation, safety for all depends on the work of a few, and laws like the Native and Negro Reeducation Act require certain children attend combat schools to learn to put down the dead. But there are also opportunities—and Jane is studying to become an Attendant, trained in both weaponry and etiquette to protect the well-to-do. It’s a chance for a better life for Negro girls like Jane. After all, not even being the daughter of a wealthy white Southern woman could save her from society’s expectations.

But that’s not a life Jane wants. Almost finished with her education at Miss Preston’s School of Combat in Baltimore, Jane is set on returning to her Kentucky home and doesn’t pay much mind to the politics of the eastern cities, with their talk of returning America to the glory of its days before the dead rose. But when families around Baltimore County begin to go missing, Jane is caught in the middle of a conspiracy, one that finds her in a desperate fight for her life against some powerful enemies. And the restless dead, it would seem, are the least of her problems."

R&R Review Wednesday: The Witch Within Her by Nick Iuppa

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Taken By Witches #2

Blurb:

"SEXY, STUNNING, RELENTLESS HORROR
A possessed child is caught in a war between witches!

Spanning centuries of horror and witchcraft, the powerful sequel to Taken By Witches tells how Babcia Czarownica, the greatest of all witches, does battle with far more seductive members of her craft. She must confront a lustful priest, a predatory lover, a vengeful undead beauty, and the unspeakable evil hiding at the top of Rapunzel’s Tower... all to save her beloved grandson and his family from utter annihilation. And she must accomplish all this while sharing the body of an eight-year-old girl."

R&R Review Sunday: Taken by Witches by Nick Iuppa

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Stand alone to date

Goodreads Blurb:

"When he was a child, Niko Madonie was terrified of his over-protective grandmother. Somehow he know she was a witch possessed of overwhelming supernatural powers and determined to save him from the real and imagined dangers of the modern world. Now a successful writer in Hollywood, Niko is helping create and animated version of Hansel and Gretel while he struggles to protect his beautiful young wife from sexy, New Age witches who hope to sacrifice her to please the ancient crone.
This is an epic horror romance set against a background of legends, with complex villains, a magical young couple, and a storyline straight from the darkest pages of the Brothers Grimm."

R&R Review Wednesday: Everyone Dies At The End by Riley Westbrook and Sara Lynn Westbrook

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Stand-alone to date

Goodreads Blurb:

"Who knew the zombie apocalypse would be caused by something we all know is deadly...but that is also all around us? Two stories intersect as the world delves into chaos - Earl, a drugged out heroin addict constantly in search of his next fix, and a family struggling with the dramas of everyday life, get no reprieve during this zombie outbreak. Can any of them survive the deadliest game of all - survival against undead, each other, and the world around them?"

Review Tuesday: Carrie by Stephen King

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Stand alone to date

Goodreads Blurb:

"Carrie knew she should not use the terrifying power she possessed... But one night at her senior prom, Carrie was scorned and humiliated just one time too many, and in a fit of uncontrollable fury she turned her clandestine game into a weapon of horror and destruction..."

R&R Review Monday: Our Souls To Keep by Gary Caruso

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Our Souls to Keep #1

Goodreads Blurb:

"After seventeen-year-old Wake Reynolds agrees to trade his life to prevent the damaged soul of his suicidal mother from the fiery tortures of Hell, Satan strips him of his humanity and forces him to become a demonic collector of souls. With no memory of his human existence, Wake preys on defenseless teenagers until they willingly end their own lives.

After many years of loyal service, something inside Wake is changing. Images of a forgotten life, lost human emotions begin to emerge. As Wake struggles to keep these new sensations hidden, Satan orders him to corrupt the soul of a pregnant girl, Annemarie. Beautiful, gentle Annemarie. From the moment Wake sees her, she brings lightness to his blackened heart. If he chooses to defy Satan and spare the lives of Annemarie and her unborn child, his mother’s soul will writhe in Hell’s deepest pit for eternity. Annemarie or his mother? It’s a choice no one should have to make. "

R&R Review and Interview Sunday: Conspiracy of Ravens by Chrystal Vaughan

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Goodreads Blurb:

"Sophia Pascale is a rising star at the Philly Herald. Her latest assignment sends her to the Philadelphia State Penitentiary to interview the "Raven Witch Killer," a self-proclaimed serial killer who is willing to talk...to the right people. Sophia gets more than she bargained for when she steps foot into the prison; Catherine Meara is more than she appears and the handsome Officer Shaw is a wrinkle in Sophia's plans she didn't count on.

Struggling with her past, her beliefs, and her desire, Sophia will be tested by her ordeal in the prison in more ways than one. She confronts her inner demons and the very real ones embodied in the black shapes perched above the prison entrance...and etched into the skin of her enemy. 

Will Sophia find true love and launch the story of her career? Or will she be yet another victim of the "Raven Witch Killer"?"

R&R Book Review Monday: Bloody Bess and the Doomsday Games by Nick Iuppa

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Goodreads Blurb:

"The castle of 15th century duchess Elizabeth Laskaar looks down on the little Swiss village of Murdenwald and the secretive military complex nearby. There, the UN hopes to end world conflict with a vast military simulation that will dramatize the apocalypse that will follow the next major war. To head the project, they hire notorious Hollywood producer Donald Vito, master of explosive action adventures, who still mourns the murder of his teenage love in the 1950s.

Vito and the simulation team use new technology to build hundreds of virtual soldiers and terrorists you can touch, speak to, and reason with. But they also begin to feel the influence of Elizabeth Laskaar. She’s often called Bloody Bess – the first real vampire – because she maintained her youthful beauty by slaughtering her maidservants and bathing in their blood.


Recklessly inspired by their surroundings, the team creates a virtual vampire that soon takes on the characteristics of Elizabeth’s magnificent, long-dead husband. Soon, he and Bess stalk the compound, seducing everyone working on the project, until vampire blood surges beyond the humans to the virtual characters with unthinkable consequences. In the end, perhaps, only the power of Vito’s long lost love can save humanity."

Book Review Thursday: The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King

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Goodreads Blurb:

"In 1978, Stephen King introduced the world to the last gunslinger, Roland of Gilead.  Nothing has been the same since. More than twenty years later, the quest for the Dark Tower continues to take readers on a wildly epic ride. Through parallel worlds and across time, Roland must brave desolate wastelands and endless deserts, drifting into the unimaginable and the familiar. A classic tale of colossal scope—crossing over terrain from The Stand, The Eyes of the Dragon, Insomnia, The Talisman, Black House, Hearts in Atlantis, ’Salem’s Lot, and other familiar King haunts—the adventure takes hold with the turn of each page.

And the tower awaits....

The Second Volume in the Epic Dark Tower Series…

The Drawing of the Three

While pursuing his quest for the Dark Tower through a world that is a nightmarishly distorted mirror image of our own, Roland is drawn through a mysterious door that brings him into contemporary America.

Here he links forces with the defiant young Eddie Dean, and with the beautiful, brilliant, and brave Odetta Holmes, in a savage struggle against underworld evil and otherworldly enemies.

Once again, Stephen King has masterfully interwoven dark, evocative fantasy and icy realism."

Review:

After reading the Gunslinger, I was anticipating a deep read loaded with metaphors and all that.  I wasn't disappointed!  Stephen King put so much effort into his world to perfect every aspect and backwards reasoning line.  I just love being inside the gunslinger's mind - he draws conclusions that seem obvious to him that I never see coming.  It's quite humbling.

I liked The Drawing of the Three a lot more than The Gunslinger mostly because the way the two world's interacted was explored more and explained more as well.  In The Gunslinger, I was confused with that whole thing.  Going hand in hand with that, this book was so much easier to understand than The Gunslinger.  It was more thorough and all of the gunslinger's conclusions were explained.  It made it so much more enjoyable.

I also loved being able to see what others thought of the gunslinger.  Up until this point, it's all been the gunslinger's POV but in this book, we get to see what The Three think of him.  Speaking of which, I loved the whole idea of The Three and the doorways.  And how the person's 'name' tied in with their character.  It was all just so beautifully put together!

This wasn't an easy read for me.  Sometimes it dragged and I often found myself checking to see how many pages I had left.  It was good, but sometimes the stretches between the action scenes and suspense scenes were a bit much.

The Final Verdict:

A very well thought out and well explained read full of metaphors and the like.  Sometimes it dragged but for the most part, I enjoyed it!

4 stars

Quotes:

“Control the things you can control, maggot. Let everything else take a flying fuck at you and if you must go down, go down with your guns blazing.” 

“What we like to think of ourselves and what we really are rarely have much in common....” 

“He was a romantic in his own harsh way…yet he was also realist enough to know that some times love actually did conquer all.” 

“We are going to fight. We are going to be hurt. And in the end, we will stand.” 

“Roland could not understand why anyone would want cocaine or any other illegal drug, for that matter, in a world where such a powerful one as sugar was so plentiful and cheap.”

“Where you think I’m goan?’
‘Well,’ Eddie said, ‘what was behind Door Number One wasn’t so hot, and what was behind Door Number Two was even worse, so now, instead of quitting like sane people, we’re going to go right on ahead and check out Door Number Three. The way things have been going, I think it’s likely to be something like Godzilla or Ghidra the Three-Headed Monster, but I’m an optimist. I’m still hoping for the stainless steel cookware.”

“The Tower. He would come to the Dark Tower and there he would sing their names; there he would sing their names; there he would sing all their names. The sun stained the east a dusky rose, and at last Roland, no longer the last gunslinger but one of the last three, slept and dreamed his angry dreams through which there ran only that one soothing blue thread: There I will sing all their names!” 

“Because the difference between seeing and not seeing can be the difference between living and dying.” 

“He walked out of nowhere toward nowhere, a man from another time who, it seemed, had reached a point of pointless ending.” 

R&R Book Review: When Angels Fail by Michael Benavidez

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Goodreads Blurb:

"A collection of horror where disaster is painted in reds and blacks throughout the stories. Blood and sex blur the lines between victim and violator. In each, Hell takes it's shapes in many different forms. These men shall witness the failing of angels.

Follow a priest as he lays into the bosom of temptation, a hunter flying on wings of to-be success, an artist cutting the canvas open, and a captain gripping the barrel of hope.
Four tales where hope is lost among the depths of horror." 

Review:

Thank you to the author Michael Benazvidez for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review!

To say the least, this book was very dark and almost slightly depressing.  However, it was very descriptive and left no stone unturned.  This book is a collection of mini stories basically about the dark side of human nature.

I absolutely loved the last mini story.  It definitely has potential to become a full-size book!

I loved the first two stories as well but I was a bit confused while reading the second to last story.  Sometimes it got a bit too descriptive and metaphorical (or that could just be me).

Mr. Benavidez has definite potential as an author and I can't wait to read some more of his work!

Final Verdict:

A very nice collection of stories if you aren't scared off by dark images and the primal side of human nature.  Sometimes it got a bit too descriptive for me but I think if they were expanded, it would be the perfect amount.  This author has lots of potential and I'm excited to read more of his work!

3.5 stars!

Book Review: Liquid Diet by William Tedford

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Goodreads Blurb:

By day, Melissa French seems like an ordinary teenage girl, but when her infatuation with Troy Davidson turns into a dangerous obsession, she begins to stalk him through the night on the hunt to uncover his darkest secrets. Little does she know that the two of them are more alike than she ever could have imagined.

Melissa follows Troy into an abyss of pain and pleasure as she attempts to quench her thirst for blood while hiding her true nature from the rest of the day world. Soon, her dreams turn into a grotesque reality as she is caught in a web of ancient history, lies, and manipulation. As her thirst begins to take control, Melissa is faced with the challenge of her life and must fight for her survival—and the survival of the vampire race.

Thank you to Whitney Martin on behalf of the Zharmae Publishing Press for allowing me to read and review this book!

Liquid Diet almost reminds me of a horror story. Just the ideas that are presented are horrific in nature. I mean it does belong to the horror genre but you know what I mean! The thing I liked about it though was now it was presented in the book. It wasn't thrown in your face how horrible the situation is and how everything is terrible. It's just given to you as if it resembles normalcy. I've never really seen that done before, how characters can be so panicked about the situation and still accept things and not totally freak out.

Second thing - if you're touchy about reading books about lust or sex, I wouldn't recommend this. William Tedford's kind of vampire's are... definitely different than Stephanie Meyer's type of vampires. However if you're up for it, this is such an intense book and the pages just fly by. Mr. Tedford's vampire's are darker, more mysterious, and just more in tune with our animal side. They aren't human and he doesn't try and make them out to be.

Third thing - the ending. I loved the ending. I don't want to spoil anything but it ended with a sense of recurrence. Of cycles. If another book ended like this one but without that sense, I would have desperately begged the writer for a sequel. But for this book, it connects with it's ancient heritage and you understand what comes next without it having to be spelled out for you.

The one thing I disliked about Liquid Diet was the middle part when everything was escalating. Again, I'm trying not to spoil anything so I'm sorry if I'm being cryptic! It went from small problem to all of a sudden the whole town is gone. It just seemed a little sudden.

Along those same lines, I just loved the overall shape of the book. How it started by pinpointing one hitchhiker and widening the range gradually until at the end we learn of the whole society. It wasn't thrown at you, you were eased into it.

Liquid Diet was definitely a page-turner for me - 4 stars!

The Gunslinger by Stephen King

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This is actually a 3.5 book for me, following GR's rating system (and mine too people!). I liked this book and I sort of really liked this book. Therefore, a 3.5!

Stephen King has a very different writing style that has evolved over his years of writing. In this stage of his career, he took on a mysterious, metaphorical style/theme. So much is left to the reader to reason out on their own. Everything about this book is covered in shadow.

This is also one of those onion books. You can read it and say "Omg SO confusing! I don't get it! What's the dude's name again??" or you can say "I just looked into a never ending pool of unspoken wisdom. Mind-blown.". I had a little of both actually. Which is why I loved and hated it at the same time. When I first started reading, I was beyond confused. I haven't read many books that are mysterious as this one so it was difficult to get into the right mindset. However, once I read this passage:

"The greatest mystery the universe offers is not life but Size. Size encompasses life, and the Tower encompasses Size. The child, who is most at home with wonder, says: Daddy, what is above the sky? And the father says: The darkness of space. The child: What is beyond space? The father: the galaxy. The child: Beyond the galaxy? The father: Another galaxy. The child: Beyond the other galaxies? The father: No one knows. You see? Size defeats us."

It just struck me then what I hadn't grasped throughout the entire book. This concept of the universe moving on. That life is a concept of thought. That our world is always temporary. Nothing is ever really permanent. Just as everything must have a beginning, it also must have an end. Now different people may perceive this book and it's message in different ways, my way being one of billions. The point is that it isn't a flippant book.

It's because of all that that I'm giving this book 3.5 stars. It was very well written with a fairly good plot. By fairly good I mean I loved it but in some places, the timeline skipped in weird places or went to fast or too slow for my tastes. Anyway, I'm not rating it 3.5 stars for some ulterior motive or because I'm 'deducting stars' or anything. I just liked it. That's it. I will be reading the next one to see what happens to the gunslinger on his quest.

The Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King

Stephen King is one of the best story-tellers I've ever read. And I mean story-tellers not just authors. Story-tellers are a whole other breed of authors. I don't know if that makes any sense but even if it doesn't just know that the way Stephen King writes is different than the average author. I've read other author's work when they are telling a story and it somehow seems too detached. In Mr. King's worlds, he holds a certain regard for the characters and it somehow makes it more real. This book had me engrossed from the 30th page. Not bad :)

The story is set in medieval times. Times of kings and royalty and scandals and magicians. One particular magician named Flagg is the main antagonist in this story. He is the perfect villain - old (very old), knowledgeable, has a sense of strategy, and is evil and wants to cause discord wherever and whenever possible. There's a lot of foreshadowing that keeps you reading. It's done so artfully that you can't help but wonder why Mr. King wrote it and therefore read on until you find out at which point another foreshadowing point has come up. It continues in this manner until the very last page. It is a sort of fairytale.

Overall, 4 stars!