REVIEW: "KINGSLEY WOODS" - by Joan Conning Afman

Title: Kingsley Woods

Series: Stand-alone

Author: Joan Conning Afman

Publisher: Etopia Press

Publication Date: February 13, 2013

Genres: Paranormal, Horror

Reviewed by: Ellen Fritz

Source: Received from publisher for review

Ellen's star rating: 5/5

SUMMARY

Kingsley Woods would be a great place to live…if only the dead would stay dead.

Jaycee Warren really doesn’t want to return to the Berkshires, a place she fled years ago in the wake of the worst humiliation of her life. But her husband’s new job leaves her no choice. Once she arrives, she loves the house in the new, gated community of Kingsley Woods, but from the first day, she feels a strange unease. Pontoosuc Lake and The Grove are familiar from her childhood, but they’re different now—threatening. As is the wolf Jaycee sees through the brush that seems to carry with it something ominous.

The evil presence grows stronger as one strange event after another plagues the quiet community. Everyone can see the wolf, but no one’s sure if he’s real. Who is he, and what does he want? And why does one woman in Kingsley Woods appear to hold the key to the past...for everyone?

REVIEW

When Jaycee Warren sees the wolf, she knows there is something off and strange about it, but, of course, nobody wants to believe her. That is everybody, except the two CIA agents, Chip and Trace, who believe in the paranormal and its many dangers. As the small community become acquainted with one another, they realize that all of them share some connection. After a woman miscarries, somebody has a heart attack, marriages get into trouble, several fires are started all at once and numerous small animals are brutally killed and dismembered; it is clear that an evil is responsible. How to stop this evil from doing more harm, however, is the question.

Kingsley Woods is a comfortably paced story with moments of extreme suspense evenly distributed throughout the book. This makes the whole reading experience one of expectation and wondering when and where the next disaster will strike. The underlying sense of menace drives the story forward to the extent that I simply could not put it down.

The wonderfully realistic and vividly described characters endeared themselves to me and, every time something happened to one of them, I worried about him/her as I would about an old friend.

From Desi the self proclaimed princess, to the wisdom spouting ex-psychiatrist, Nick, all the inhabitants of the gated community contributed to a rich selection of personalities. Even worse were the numerous times I had to wonder who of the characters might be responsible for the destructive evil in Kingsley Woods. Add to this the presence known as 'Oh! Be Joyful’, and you have a story you don't want to miss.

The back story of the main character, Jaycee, is skilfully worked into the main story. The author strengthens the sense of danger by divulging certain crucial bits of information at moments when it can best crank up the suspense. As Kingsley Woods has a slightly open unresolved ending, let's hope there will be more about this beautiful place and the interesting people who live there. I highly recommend this book to everybody with nerves of steel and a taste for the supernatural.

 

 

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BOOK BLAST & $50 GIVEAWAY: "BLUE HEARTS OF MARS" - by Nicole Grotepas

Blue Hearts of Mars by Nicole Grotepas

Retta Heikkinen knows the unspoken rule of society: love between androids and humans is forbidden. A simple enough edict until Hemingway Koskinen spends an evening charming her with his intense gaze, bewitching smile, and sparkling conversation that hints at so much more than the usual obsessions of high school boys. Rules were meant to be cast aside, especially when love beckons.

If only it were as simple as being in love.

Trouble is brewing, not just for Hemingway--for all androids. Secrets have been kept, lies propagated, and Retta soon discovers that a frightening future awaits thousands of androids if she doesn’t do something to stop it. Worse yet, she will lose the one love she’s ever endangered herself for: Hemingway.

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Praise

"Nothing like I've read before. A true original story! Everything is so well described. Now if they could make a follow up book and movie, that would be great!" ~Mrs. Z (Amazon)

"I was addicted to this book from the beginning. Life on Mars was very real and not at all a sci fi world I didn't understand . . . I found myself rooting for Retta and Hemingway from the very beginning. Easy reading, couldn't put it down and had it read in a weekend. Waiting for a sequel!" ~TNielsen (Amazon)

"The ending of this book is exceptional. While it was different from what I imagined, the way the author brought in a shocking revelation was amazing. I probably reread the last chapter 3 times letting it sink in and the meaning behind it. It was truly beautiful . . . I would love to see more of Retta and Hemingway!" ~Kat Meyer, (Goodreads)

"I love how the author populated Mars . . . so descriptive and comprehensive . . . I could clearly picture everything as if I was seeing the movie &/or was along for the ride. . . . Retta, the main character, is strong, opinionated, and a great champion for her cause." ~Megan (Amazon)

"I had been in the worst reading slump ever and came across this on Goodreads and thought I'd give it a try. Well, I was pleasantly surprised on how funny and exciting and mysterious it was . . . Mei, Retta's bff, had me laughing out loud quite a bit as well as Retta herself. I'd definitely hang out with those two." ~Deanneluvbooks (Goodreads)

Blue Hearts of Mars has made it to the quarterfinals of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award.

Readers are invited to download the excerpts (here) and rate and comment on the entries. So please, if you want to contribute, download and rate Blue Hearts! Your support is incredibly appreciated!

Or purchase the full version of the book here: Amazon

Author Nicole Grotepas

Nicole wrote her first fantasy novel in 7th grade on her mother's old Brother typewriter. It was never finished but it strongly resembled a Dragonlance plot and she's forever wondered what happened to the manuscript and Tonathan--the handsome elven protagonist. After living in Nashville where she worked as an editor, she returned to the Utah desert where she was raised. Nicole now lives near the Wasatch mountains with her husband. She writes and raises her son and three cats full time.

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Book Blast Giveaway

$50 Amazon Gift Card or Paypal Cash

Ends 4/14/13

Open only to those who can legally enter, receive and use an Amazon.com Gift Code or Paypal Cash. Winning Entry will be verified prior to prize being awarded. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent enter for you. The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Giveaway was organized by Kathy from I Am A Reader, Not A Writer http://iamareader.com and sponsored by the author. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.


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REVIEW: "FROZEN SOLID" - by James M. Tabor

Title: “Frozen Solid”

Author: James M. Tabor

Publisher: Ballantine Books

Publication Date: March 26, 2013

Genres: Sci-fi, Thriller

Reviewed by: Books4Tomorrow

Source: Received from publisher via NetGalley

My star rating: 3/5

SUMMARY

An international group of scientists known as Triage believes that overpopulation is dooming the planet, causing climate change, water scarcity, famine, pandemics, and more. For civilization to survive, the scientists conclude that the earth’s population must be reduced—drastically and without delay. But killing is not part of their agenda. Instead, they will genetically engineer and disseminate a common virus that is really a carrier for something much more sinister.

After the mysterious death of a colleague, microbiologist Hallie Leland is dispatched to the South Pole to continue her friend’s research. What she uncovers are alarming details of Triage’s plot, which pits her against forces more terrible than she could have imagined. Now, in one of earth’s loneliest and most treacherous places, where high altitude and extreme environmental conditions can play tricks on the mind, Hallie finds that she has only five days to stop the shocking plan from taking hold.

REVIEW

Frozen Solid is the first book ever I’ve read by this author. Whilst it is an action-packed thriller saturated with suspense, I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would. It just felt as though the story never took off – like sitting in a bus, feeling it slowly accelerating to about five miles an hour and then slowly decelerating again to come to a halt. That’s what it felt like reading this novel. I still had many unanswered questions left once I got to the end of it.

Some of the things that made this a less-than-great read for me, include the technical- and scientific jargon the author uses throughout the story without any simple explanations for readers like me who have a limited knowledge of science. Also, the constant jumps between points of view and abrupt transitioning between scenes and chapters, made me lose track of the plot more than once. One example of this is when the main character, Hallie Leland, is running in her wetsuit towards safety, but is slowly getting frozen and stuck in the ice. She gives up, stops fighting the cold, and resigns herself to await her inevitable demise. Chapter ends. Start of next chapter, first line, she’s standing in her superior’s office, safe and sound, and explains to him how she got there. Such sudden leaps between scenes are frequent all through the book. By the end I had a pretty good idea what the crux of the story was, but I didn’t exactly understand how everything came together to form the conclusion.  The world-building was done quite well and I could easily imagine the extreme cold the characters had to endure, but in stark contrast, the characters weren’t fleshed out enough for me to feel anything for them, even though a lot of lengthy explanations and dialogue are used.  

Although the story was at times dragging along, the suspense was never-ending. There’s a lot to be said for an author whose writing is so engaging – long-winded descriptions and all - it kept me reading into the early hours of the morning. My favorite parts which kept me glued to the pages were the ones in which discoveries were made, the times Hallie spent underwater below the ice, the time she went down into “Old Pole”, and the nerve-wracking scene in which she saved two of her fellow colleagues who fell through the ice. These scenes, and the heart-stopping build-up towards the ending, is why I’m giving Frozen Solid a three-star rating and am recommending it to hardcore readers of the thriller and mystery genres.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

 

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BOOK TOUR & GIVEAWAY: “SHATTERED SOUL” – by Jennifer Snyder

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Title: “Shattered Soul”

Author: Jennifer Snyder

Publisher: Self-published

Publication Date: May 14, 2011

Genre: Young Adult, Romance

SUMMARY

Hellish Nightmare...

If seventeen-year-old Seth Bradson were to describe his life in two words, those would be the two he’d choose. Seth prefers to cope with his crappy existence by spending his days in a drug-induced haze. But when Ali Carson steps into his life, Seth finds something he’s subconsciously been seeking—a new drug, one that consumes his mind unlike any other. 

Love.

In a moment of unforgivable weakness, Seth allows Ali to try crystal meth, his most addictive temptation. This single event begins the unraveling of both their lives and forces Seth to learn the definition of regret the hard way.

 

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ABOUT the AUTHOR

Jennifer Snyder lives in North Carolina were she spends most of her time writing young adult fiction, reading, and struggling to stay on top of housework. She is an instant coffee lover with an obsession for spiral bound notebooks and smooth writing pens. Jennifer lives with her husband and two children, who endure listening to songs that spur inspiration on repeat and tolerate her love for all paranormal, teenage-targeted TV shows.

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Enter the giveaway to win a signed copy (US) or e-copy (Int) of Shattered Soul by Jennifer Snyder, by completing the rafflecopter form below.

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BOOK TOUR: “HEAD CASE” – by Jennifer Oko

Title: “Head Case”

Author: Jennifer Oko

Published: December 19, 2012

Publisher: Self-published

SUMMARY

Meet Olivia Zack, neuroscientist, pharmaceutical consultant—and murder victim.

A humorous mystery from an author whose work has been called "simply riveting" by The New York Times and "sharp and fast-paced" by Publisher's Weekly—it’s Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones meets Carl Hiaasen’s Nature Girl (with a dash of Janet Evanovich’s One for the Money) as Olivia embarks on a postmortem quest to deconstruct the events that lead up to her mind-altering death.

A comic satire of the influence of the psychopharmaceutical industry on American life, HEAD CASE takes Olivia and her estranged friend and roommate Polly Warner on a collision course involving ethically challenged executives, spotlight-hungry celebrities, third-rate mobsters, and drug-dealing babushkas. A smart and savvy page-turner, HEAD CASE explores the meaning of personal relationships, emotional intelligence, and mental health while taking the reader on a synapse-stirring, neurotransmitting rollicking ride.

  

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ABOUT the AUTHOR

Jennifer Oko’s first book, Lying Together: My Russian Affair (written under her maiden name, Jennifer Beth Cohen), was published in 2004 and received numerous positive reviews. The New York Times Book Review called Lying Together “riveting” and twice named it an Editors’ Choice. The San Francisco Chronicle raved, saying it was “a heady cocktail” and “a quick, juicy read.”

Her second book, a satirical novel about morning television news entitled Gloss, was a Marie Claire “pick of the month” in 2007 and chosen as a “hot summer read” by USA Today.

Currently working as a freelance writer and media consultant, Jennifer is a “recovering” journalist and award-winning television news producer. A graduate of Columbia University’s Journalism School, her career has taken her across the country and around the world. She now lives with her husband and two young children in Washington, DC.

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REVIEW: "HIVE" (Species Intervention #6609, #4) - by J.K. Accinni

Title: “Hive”

Series: (Species Intervention #6609, #4)

Author: J.K. Accinni

Publisher: Skinny Leopard Media

Publication Date: December 15, 2012

Genres: Sci-fi, Adventure, Paranormal

Reviewed by: Books4Tomorrow

Source: Received from author

My star rating: 5/5

SUMMARY

In the rush to the Tampa Airport, Abby meets a small group of elephants from the famous Elizabeth Siggins Wildlife Foundation fleeing the political horrors of Africa. Putting them under her protection and that of the Hive, she meets Tobi, the elderly matriarch of the small herd who will sacrifice herself to save a human and in return is rewarded with the ultimate gift the Womb can bestow.

As the bedraggled group race to the Hive for protection, saving a few desperate souls as they go, the first bomb arrives. As the survivors and the wildlife struggle to adjust to the new pecking order in the Hive and the revelations of their own origins, a woman and her two grandchildren live through the hellish horror and complete breakdown of civilization above ground as they struggle to reach the Hive where her husband awaits.

Horror visits the struggling survivors as they learn the Earth will not support habitation for at least another one hundred years. But the biggest shock comes from the Womb as it extracts a huge penalty from the hapless people, tolling the demise of the human race.

REVIEW

I finished the third book in the Species Intervention series a week ago, and because of the way it ended with so many questions still left unanswered, I couldn’t wait to start on Hive – which picks up exactly where Armageddon Cometh left off. Again, this was another instalment in the series which ended with a whole batch of new questions and mysteries, which will hopefully be addressed in the fifth book, The One.

“Are you alright, Peter?”

“No, Abby, I’m not alright. My girlfriend is a professional whore, I abetted the murder of a psycho that held a gun on me for two days, I just finished watering some cats that weigh three times what I do and they know it, a camel spit in my face then shit on my feet, my boss that I cared for just turned out to be some kind of alien freak and we seem to be running for our lives with a boat full of hungry, dangerous, smelly creatures. And it’s hot.”

In Hive, Peter – one of the character’s I’m rooting for – still remains an enigma, and Kenya, past her baby’s due date, amuses the reader with more of her streetsmarts and wit. The reader finally get to know more about the Womb; home to Baby, Echo, Netty and Wil, but at the same time more questions are raised. Why are Baby and Echo sneaking off at night when everybody is asleep? Whose screams are coming through the walls in the hive? Who is lurking in the shadows?

If you’ve been following this series, you might’ve wondered along the way where Baby, Netty and Wil - characters from the first book, Baby - went and where they’ve been the past hundred or so years. Well, once the survivors and animals move into the hive, Netty, Wil and Baby is finally back in the picture and some of those questions are answered. The Womb is really a neat place to be, as the survivors discover once they get settled in. They soon realize though that in their new home, humans are now at the bottom of the food chain, and at the mercy of the Womb.

“She actually understood that humans as a species didn’t deserve this planet, but her heart bled with the thought of the uncorrupted babies and children that would perish.”

As civilization and the world fall apart on the outside of the Womb, new bonds and friendships are formed on the inside, and of course, as is typical from an author who likes to surprise and engage her readers, more secrets and mysteries come to the fore.  One of the reveals is the significance of the numbers 6609; something I’ve been curious about since the start of the series. And maybe you think you’ve solved the mystery of who is going to be “the one”? Guess again!

“Their world now existed far beyond that of dog eat dog. Civilization now teetered on the insane edge of human eat human…”

By now I’ve grown accustomed to this author introducing new characters - a fair representation of persons from all walks of life - into each book to keep the story interesting, the anticipation building, and the plot lined with twists. I did find it difficult, however, to keep track of all the new and old characters. Because of the sheer volume of so many characters in the Womb, and the handful of new characters attempting to navigate their way through the destruction of America en route to the hive, I only managed to connect to some of the characters, but couldn’t relate to any of them.

“…is that all men can think of in a disaster, to revert to beasts? No-not beasts. Beasts don’t rape and murder. That’s what man does.”

Seth’s character, taking the place of Armoni, adds a lot to the suspense as newcomer Lorna flees with her grandchildren across a country falling into ruin, in hopes of finding her husband and safety in the hive. The character I felt the most heartbroken about is Suzie. I’m appalled at the implied horrors awaiting this poor little five-year-old.

Hive is disturbingly fraught with violence, cruelty and brutality, but as in the previous books, this is used as a necessary tool to realistically place the reader in the midst of thechaos and breakdown of civilization, and show - instead of tell - the reader how evil man can be and how this iniquity can extend man’s cruelty to his fellow human beings.  Not surprisingly, this book gripped me from start to end, and once again I was deeply absorbed by the many topics the author so passionately write about.  Overall, Hive was an amazing read which left me speechless long before its shocking finale. As I did with all the books in this splendid series so far, I have high expectations of The One, which will hopefully bring a satisfying conclusion to this remarkable series.

 

 

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REVIEW+FREE E-BOOK: "MILA 2.0: ORIGINS: INTO THE FIRE" (Mila 2.0, #0.5) - by Debra Driza

Title: “Mila 2.0: Origins: The Fire”

Series: (Mila 2.0, #0.5)

Author: Debra Driza

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books

Publication Date: January 8, 2013

Genre: YA, Sci-fi

Reviewed by: Books4Tomorrow

Source: Free download

My star rating: 4/5

SUMMARY

Heart-stopping and electric, MILA 2.0: Origins: The Fire contains a short prequel story and an excerpt to MILA 2.0, the first book in a riveting Bourne Identity–style trilogy by Debra Driza.

Mila can't remember anything before the fire that took her father's life. It's normal to have some memory loss after traumatic events, but Mila doesn't remember if she's ever learned to ride a bike, or if she's ever been in love. Nothing.

What she doesn't know is that she isn't supposed to remember—that she was built in a computer science lab and programmed to forget. Because if she remembers, she might discover her true identity.

The question is: If she relived the fire, what would she see?

REVIEW

I downloaded this novella from Amazon for free a few days ago, and it must be the shortest short story I’ve ever read on kindle. No seriously, it’s short! The entire story of Mila reliving a memory of her trying to save her parents from a house fire, comprises an entire 15 percent of the kindle version of this novella. The rest of the 85 percent that’s left are the first few chapters of Mila 2.0 – a Bourne Identity-style trilogy.

Debra Driza’s debut, Mila 2.0, has been receiving a lot of hype and loads of positive reviews on Goodreads and Amazon alike, and I’ve already added it to my tbr list. The novella was too short to give me any insight on whether I’d enjoy the full-length novel, but it did give me an idea of the author’s easy-flowing writing style which had me connecting to Mila’s character in no time. Very little happens to really give the reader the full scope of Mila, other than that she’s fearless and determined. Those are definitely two of the qualities I look for in female protagonists, and after reading the first seven chapters of Mila 2.0 (excerpted in this novella), I’m more excited than ever to get started on this promising novel. All-in-all, if the novella doesn’t help you decide, maybe the first few chapters of the full-length story might. It took me about an hour or so to read the entire kindle version of Mila 2.0: Origins: The Fire, and as it’s free for download, it’s a good way to see if Mila 2.0 might be a read you’ll enjoy. So I say go for it. 

 

 

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Mila 2.0: Origins: The Fire by Debra Driza has 69 reviews on Goodreads. Read it here.

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