Reviewing Indie Authors One Book at a Time

Archive for the ‘4 Star’ Category

Review-We Thought We Were Invincible

Author: Michelle Lynn
Publisher: Creativia

About the Book

California “Callie” McCoy feels most alive when her feet are planted firmly on her surfboard on a big swell. And one day, she dreams of riding that wave out of her small town. Away from everyone.

Her plan is simple: graduate high school. With Callie’s best friend gone away to college, she plans on spending her senior year skating by. She isn’t looking for friends, and especially not for love – all she needs are her waves and her twin brother. Even if he comes with an annoying best friend, Jamie Daniels, who she can’t stand.

Jamie is a care-free, easy-going surfer who has everything. On the surface, his life appears perfect, but reality is far from it. He has his share of secrets, including one that burns deeper than any other. It’s a good thing Callie hates him because if she didn’t, Jamie knows there’s no way he’d be able to stay away.

And then, one night, everything changes. And nothing will ever be the same.

Review

Writing from alternating first person points of view from different gender perspectives, Lynn captures the relationships of a group of teenagers in a small Florida town complete with familiar struggles of popularity, love, sex, and deciding what to do with life as adulthood approaches at lightning speed. Lynn tells a timeless tale in modern times.

Using surfing as the running theme throughout the novel, Lynn describes the steep ups and downs of teenage life from managing immature romantic relationships to navigating the adult world of responsibility and choosing a career path or exercising the freedom to roam. Ordinary life is tumultuous enough for young adults and even more so when extraordinary events break up developing patterns of routine. Breaking the story into two part accentuates the profound changes taking place.

4 Stars

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Creativia

Amazon

 

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Category:

4 Star, Young Adult

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The Book of Em: The Last Gatekeeper – Richard Brant

bookofemIn the fantasy style of Piers Anthony, Brant takes us to a place where the modern human world meets the world of faeries, dwarves, centaurs, and other mystical creatures, a place where time does not exist. For the world of Em, the Gatekeeper is a figure from prophecy and one of immense importance. For the young man destined to be the Gatekeeper, the duties and consequences of his destiny will change his life – in both beneficial and injurious ways.

Ben of the human world represents much that is wrong with the modern human world. He is depressed and withdrawn, symptoms of his constant physical and emotional abuse by the man who is neither his father nor his mother’s husband, but a man to which his mother attached to when he was a successful football player and she needed a place to raise her illegitimate child. Ben has no friends, nor does he seek friendship knowing it will only bring down a wrath upon him and his mother. He is protective and wishes to help someone, yet he is nearly helpless to do so being young and inexperienced.

Creole of Em is a half-human and half-faerie, the daughter of the previous human Gatekeeper, and the one destined to be the mate of the Last Gatekeeper. With an abrasively teenage personality, she is the opposite of Ben and opposes him at many turns throughout the book. From her, Ben learns the value of opening up to friendship.

4 Stars

Amazon.com

 

Category:

4 Star, Epic, Fantasy

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Ocean Gods, Roman Blades – Andrew Knighton

ocean-godsIn a short and battle-heavy narrative of a Roman legionary, Ocean Gods, Roman Blades follows Varus, a man who struggles to keep his innate warring drive in check to follow the discipline of a Roman warrior.

Giving mythology life in acts of incredible yet horrifying magic, Varus and his squad fight against pirates responsible for attacking Roman merchant ships.

Knighton writes with insightfulness, using the perspective of the protagonist to spy into the complexities of the characters surrounding him while still driving home the theme of a man trying to change himself to suit the world into which he was born.

4 Stars

Amazon.com

Category:

4 Star, Fantasy, Mythology, Sword and Sorcery

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Spring Delusions – Zahra Ammar

springdelusionsCapturing emotions with words takes determination, skill, and patience. Ammar shows an abundance of each of these traits in creating Spring Delusions: Chaotic Poems of Despair and Blooming Hope. Utilizing timely pop-culture, mythological, and literary references, Ammar wrestles with the chaos of describing enigmatic emotional states and succeeds on multiple fronts.

4 Stars

Amazon.com

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Category:

4 Star, Poetry

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Hydrostatic-Level of Fire – CM Blackburn

hslf-cmbThey thought it was a cheat code, but these three kids were in for a surprise when they pressed the special combination on the computer keyboard.

No one knows who invented the game; Joe only knows he’s heard it is the best game ever. Joe and his siblings find themselves locked into the digital game, struggling to beat the level in order to go home. An exciting read for kids in the middle grades, this book takes kids on a timely adventure through a dangerous volcanic world and demonstrates how even kids can work together using the strongest trait of each one to make it through tough situations, including thinking through the puzzles of the game under intense stress.

4 Stars

Amazon.com

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Category:

4 Star, Fantasy, Middle Grade

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As Wings Unfurl – Blog Tour

wings-banner

About the Bookas-wings-unfurl-800-cover-reveal-and-promotional

Applegate Bogdanski returns from Vietnam with a missing leg, a Purple Heart, and an addiction to morphine. He stumbles through each day, looking forward to nothing and hoping it will arrive soon. When he attempts to thwart a crime, he is knocked unconscious and wakes up to discover that people are once again calling him a hero, though he feels undeserving of the praise.

Apple returns to work and meets Angela, a mysterious woman who claims to be his guardian. Immediately, he feels a connection to her, which morphs into an attraction. But he soon discovers that Angela is much more than she seems.

Apple and Angela are swept up in a conspiracy that stretches through time and space. Together, they must fight to save everything they hold dear from an alien race bent on destroying humanity.

Review

With a film noir feel, a mystery unfolds about a sexy woman, a catholic cardinal, and a some secretly snapped photographs… and then the author throws in some unexpected guests. There is no shortage of surprises in As Wings Unfurl by Arthur M. Doweyko. This combination of mystery and science fiction pulls together elements of both genres into a compelling adventure for a young war vet and the strange yet familiar woman he meets. The author’s descriptions invoke vivid imagery that sticks with you throughout the novel.

“When he spoke, an unlit cigarette, eternally glued to the corner of his mouth, moved up and down like a conductor’s baton.”

About the Author

After retiring in 2009, Arthur M. Doweyko took up writing fiction. His novel Algorithm garnered a 2010 Royal Palm Literary Award. He has also published a number of short stories, many of which have been selected as Finalists in the Royal Palm Literary Award contest, and two Honorable Mentions in the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest.

Arthur was awarded the 2008 Thomas Alva Edison Patent Award for his contribution to the discovery of Sprycel, a novel anti-cancer drug successfully brought to the marketplace in 2009. He has authored over one hundred publications (papers, abstracts, patents, book chapters) and has been an invited lecturer in a number of drug-discovery and computational venues.

Arthur lives in Florida with the love of his life, Lidia. When he’s not writing, he’s happily wandering the beaches.

 

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Category:

4 Star, blog tour, Mystery, Science Fiction

Marcy Meets an Alien – James V. Eves

A graphic novel without words, this story in illustrations shows a young human girl meeting a blue alien while on a picnic day with her parents. The alien shows surprising talents and features, such as winged ears that allow it to fly, helping the human girl climb a tree. The human girl introduces her new friend to the game of soccer. The human girl tells the story of the alien to her parents, who laugh and don’t believe it’s true. The humans drive off then take off in a van-rocket, showing that they were picnicking on a planet that was actually the blue being’s homeworld. The blue alien runs home to tell its own parents the story of the visitor, only to be laughed at. In its room, we see that the blue alien is the one named Marcy and that the human beings were really the aliens.

The message sent to children is about point of view.  From your point of view, those unlike you or from other places are considered alien. On the opposite side, the other person is thinking the same thing about you. And at the same time, the two different intelligent species aren’t that different at all. The children like the play, even if their games are different, and they both have a story to tell that no one else will believe.

Marcy

For age 5+

Amazon

 

 

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Category:

4 Star, Aliens, Children/PreSchool, Graphic Novel, Illustrated, Science Fiction, space travel

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