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book reviews |
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Multi-genre, multi-volume author, Matthew Fish introduces us to his dystopian sci-fi story, The Bittersweet Song of Canary: Around two-hundred years have passed since a great cataclysm struck the Earth. A young girl named Canary is part of a settlement attempting to rebuild and learn about the past. While dealing with a human life that seems to have devolved over the long passage of time, Canary desperately dreams of escaping to the stars high above to a mysterious place called Haven. However, her dreams may be her downfall.  I found this story about a post-apocalyptic, primitive civilization on earth to be very interesting. The struggle for survival was anything but guaranteed, the remnants of the previous high-tech civilization were useful. The author did a good job of setting this scene and allowing the people to scrap and scrape for their livelihood. The dialogue was enjoyable, the action was very dramatic at times. I love the First Person POV, when it is done right and Matthew is great. I give The Bittersweet Song of Canary a score of 4.8 stars.  You can buy this book:
https://smile.amazon.com/Bittersweet-Song-Canary-Matthew-Fish-ebook https://www.goodreads.com/-the-bittersweet-song-of-canary https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bittersweet-Song-Canary-Matthew-Fish-ebook You can follow the author: https://twitter.com/Matthew_MFish https://www.facebook.com/people/Matthew-Fish Copyright © 2019 Mark L. Schultz except for the author’s introduction
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Multi-volume author, W. F. Ranew introduces us to his latest hard-boiled thriller, the first volume of the Red Farlow Mysteries series, RICH AND GONE: PI Red Farlow is on the hunt to find $300 million a Florida insurance executive has bilked out of family and friends. Woody Cunningham stashed the money in safe havens around the world before disappearing. Has he been done in by one of his enemies? Or did he skip town with his girlfriend to live off the ill-gotten wealth? If that’s the case, where is he? Farlow must quickly learn how and why people hide their money in offshore accounts if he's to find out what happened to Cunningham. When a tough guy from Farlow's past resurfaces, wanting to settle an old score, Farlow discovers he also has links to the missing man. Clues lead him across Georgia and Florida, and Europe, to find the answers. Is Woody Cunningham dead, or just rich and gone?  I am surprised by how much I enjoyed this story. I had to look up the genre to be sure I understood the style of a hard-boiled mystery. The protagonist is usually a cynic, having seen the worst of humanity in the course of a career in law enforcement or as a private investigator. The client usually doesn’t reveal the entire story, and the investigation reveals secrets that different parties wish were left in the dark. I found this story to be very entertaining and well written. It’s told in First Person POV by Red Farlow, the protagonist. The author crafts an exciting story. I laughed out loud a number of times at the dialog, there were some really good lines. The plotting was excellent and scene setting left little to be desired. I give “RICH AND GONE” a score of 4.8 stars.  You can buy this book: http://tirgearrpublishing.com/authors/Ranew_WF/rich-and-gone.htm https://www.amazon.com/rich-and-gone https://www.goodreads.com/book/-rich-and-gone You can follow the author: https://twitter.com/wfranew http://wfranew.com/ http://wfranew.wordpress.com/ http://tirpub.com/wfranew Tags: murder, thriller, financial fraud, money, PI Copyright © Mark L. Schultz 2019, except for the author’s introduction Multi-volume author, Trina Jordan, introduces us to her book of life advice: How to Live: Preteens: Trust Your Gut: Preteens learn to live before life becomes complicated. Today, there are many teenagers experiencing moments in their life at a very early age. They are experimenting with sex before their 15th birthday. They are experimenting with recreational drugs before their 13th birthday. My reason for this second book is to share with preteens the life experiences they are experiencing and will experience as they grow. I hope preteens will gain insight from each chapter and hold onto it. I hope preteens will refer back to this book as they reach the different stages in their life. My first book has very similar contents as this one. However, my first book includes adult content. I decided to share some of my life experiences as a married woman. Even though the adult content was written in a modest format, I felt it was not appropriate for preteens. I hope this book will help preteens understand their life. I wish I had someone to guide me when I was a preteen.  I like this book quite a bit. The author brings the difficult issues into the light and offers gentle encouragement, just like a favorite auntie. These issues are encountered by all kids of this age, at school, hanging out with friends and even at home sometimes. This kind of advice can save a young person so much grief, and that is the goal of Trina. She has made many of these mistakes and hopes to help preteens avoid making them also. I have made many of those mistakes also. I give “How to Live, Preteens: Trust Your Gut” a score of 4.9 stars. The score would have been higher except for a few spelling errors. These errors have been corrected; your reading experience will be smoother.  You can buy this book:
https://www.amazon.com/How-Live-Preteens-Trust-Your-ebook https://www.goodreads.com/book/-how-to-live https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Live-Preteens-Trust-Your-ebook You can follow the author: https://twitter.com/tjmb052010 https://www.amazon.com/trinamjordan http://www.linkedin.com/in/trinajordan I have reviewed other books by Trina: https://www.wordrefiner.com/book-reviews/how-to-live-change-your-path-learn-from-my-mistakes-by-trina-jordan https://www.wordrefiner.com/book-reviews/how-to-live-to-live-is-hard-never-give-up-by-trina-jordan-mba You can join us in our previous interview https://www.wordrefiner.com/book-reviews/how-to-live-to-live-is-hard-never-give-up-by-trina-jordan-mba If you would like. Tags: parenting, pre-teens, teenagers, self-help, self-esteem, hope, faith, family, school, relationships, work Copyright © 2019 Mark Schultz except for the author’s introduction Multi-volume, multi-genre author, Leslie D. Soule introduces us to the third volume in The Fallenwood Chronicles, Betrayer: With five crystals to destroy, in order to rob the dark lord Malegaunt of his power, Ash Kensington's path is set. She begins a quest with the talking cat, Greymalkin, and her wyvern, Slick. But when she meets up with the handsome dragon slayer, Draeon, her senses overwhelm her, and she becomes distracted. Will she be able to destroy the crystals in time to challenge Malegaunt?  This is a fascinating book on two levels. There is more than one story here, if you read the preface, you will see the second story by reading between the lines of prose. I like the main character, Ashley, quite a bit. She comes across as a wounded person, like all of us are to one degree or another, trying to cope with the life she is in. Except, she has two lives, unlike most of us who live in one world rather than two. Written in First Person POV, which I love, this story has a widely varying pace, just like real life. The scene-setting is good, the dialogue is nicely done also. The characters are nicely fleshed out, their personalities come through quite well. I award 4.9 stars to “Betrayer”!  You can buy this book:
https://smile.amazon.com/Betrayer-Fallenwood-Chronicles-Book-3-ebook https://www.goodreads.com/book/betrayer https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/betrayer-leslie-d-soule You can follow the author: https://twitter.com/Falcondraco http://www.lesliesoule.com https://www.instagram.com/falcondraco https://www.facebook.com/DarkSoules Tags: fantasy, sword and sorcery, quest, unicorn, magic, Copyright 2019 Mark L. Schultz except for the author’s introduction Multi-volume, multi-genre author, Rick Hall introduces us to his new book, Gnosis: A Psychic Urban Fantasy: Psychics, government conspiracies, and dangerous criminals swirl like a summer storm around 17yo parkour enthusiast Samantha Black. When a series of crushing headaches lands Sam in the hospital, she wakes to an imaginary voice in her head: Alexander, an adorable ten-year-old who claims to be a telepath. The doctors think Sam’s brain was damaged after a stroke, but they’re wrong. Alexander isn’t imaginary. He’s a sentient virus, and the government knows about him. After all, they created him.  This story is so well crafted! I love it! Samantha is so resourceful; I love the parkour action also. Alexander is quite adorable. Rick has wowed me with his writing! His plotting is magnificent, the scene-setting is excellent. I don’t think he wasted a single word. Everything moves the story forward, as the mysteries are peeled back one at a time. First person POV does it for me every time, no head-hopping here! I enjoyed how the characters developed also. Gnosis gets a score of 4.9 stars!  You can buy this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Gnosis-Psychic-Fantasy-Rick-Hall-ebook https://www.goodreads.com/book/-gnosis https://www.bookbub.com/books/gnosis-a-psychic-urban-fantasy-by-rick-hall You can follow Rick: https://twitter.com/Stellerex64 http://www.rickhallauthor.com https://www.facebook.com/GnosisNovel https://www.goodreads.com/author/Rick_Hall https://www.bookbub.com/profile/rick-hall Tags: mystery, conspiracy, paranormal, teen, YA, father, action, adventure, coming of age, paranormal Rick's guest blog about non-linear writing: www.wordrefiner.com/guest-blogs/non-linear-writing Copyright © Mark Schultz 2019, except for the author’s introduction. |
Who am I?An avid reader, typobuster, and the Hyper-Speller. I am a husband, father, and grandfather. Archives
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