Review | Forever Changed, Tiffany King

Forever Changed by Tiffany King
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Conflicting emotions expertly drawn through a moving story:

Tiffany King demonstrates a talent for taking a character through personality and emotional changes, showing an evolvement from the behaviour of a child to the behaviour of an adult. In my humble opinion, this is the mark of a good YA story… showing that very transition into maturity. And King writes this behavioural switch effortlessly through a page-turning storyline.

Kassandra is Miss Popularity in High School – a somewhat spoilt and self-indulgent young lady whose priorities are brutally turned around by a family tragedy that takes her father and throws her life and family into turmoil. Burdened with grief, her mother withdraws into a dissociative state, leaving Kassandra to take care of business, and take care, above all, of her little sister. Dealing with her own grief, watching her mother retreat more and more into a dysfunctional state, caring for her traumatised little sister, Kassandra is suddenly laden with responsibilities no girl of that age should have to bear.

Maddon is the abused son of the man responsible for all of this tragedy. He is also irresistibly drawn to Kassandra, even though he feels guilty and even not-worthy of anything but her scorn. And indeed scorn is what he gets as he tries to approach her… she literally hates the boy in school whose father ruined her family. Yet over time, at a carefully measured pace, the story shows how two victims of tragedy can draw together, for support, for friendship, and maybe for love.

I found the story illustrated in a skilful style by the use of alternate POVs – each chapter following the previous from Kassandra’s aspect to Maddon’s, back and forth. This keeps the pace lively, gives the reader a vivid portrayal of what both main characters are experiencing, and takes us through the exchange of feelings which this tragedy has brought about to both of them. The principal background characters – namely Kassandra’s school friends, who should be supporting her at this time – are shown to be nothing more than fickle, shallow and fair-weather friends… none of whom are worthy of much more than a slap across the wrist for being so damned vacuous! The author depicts an intelligent indicator of what TRUE friends should really be like.

At its core, this is a story of two people who are reluctant enemies, but who are drawn together despite circumstances. You can expect the twists and turns that a good story boasts, and you can expect a moving prose that leads you hungrily to keep turning those pages. Recommended.


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Review | Bite, Heather Litteral

Bite by Heather Litteral
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Goodreads Product Description...

Meet Skye Jones, newly created vampire and mind reader. Immortal and all-powerful, right? Well, not so much. Before Skye even has a chance to test out her new fangs, she’s on the run from assassins sent by a powerful vampire who fears Skye has read her mind and learned her secrets. If only she had! But Skye isn’t going down without a fight and she thinks may have found a way to stop the attacks for good. How do you fight a powerful, ancient vampire? With another powerful, ancient vampire, of course! What happens next? Murder, mayhem and a mind-controlling scepter. Dark elves, dark nights and dark desires. Two dangerously hot men: one human, one vampire. For reasons she doesn’t understand, the vampire Gabriel is temptation incarnate for her. But what about Ryan, the new human in her life? Who to choose? Who to trust? In the vampire world it’s a fine line between love and death. Sometimes all that separates them is a BITE.

My Review:

Fast-paced vampire thriller:

This story gallops along, with no stream-of-consciousness, no reflective indulgence, just pure action from start to finish. It is the very definition of a page-turner.

Skye has barely adjusted to her new life as a vampire, when she discovers that she has an additional, and very useful ability, not expected and not welcomed by a certain member of the Council. As a consequence, this ancient Council member, afraid that Skye has acquired a secret knowledge she’s not supposed to have, issues a ‘death warrant’ – and Skye is then pursued mercilessly by one assassin after another, all determined to remove this young woman for a secret she doesn’t actually possess.

Skye is on the run, constantly fighting to survive – an existence which makes her a somewhat irritable and temperamental young woman with little patience for anyone – but when she has to fight day-by-day to survive, it’s hardly surprising that she has a rather sarcastic and untrusting attitude.

Enter Ryan, a sympathetic character who understands the nature of the vampire world, has his own grief to deal with, and yet remains throughout, the most patient and understanding partner. An attraction between the two becomes a bond on which Skye finds herself relying more and more. But in order for Skye to fight back against the mercenaries sent to kill her, she must enlist the help of a powerful ancient: Gabriel. And Gabriel is a distraction and attraction that our heroine finds difficult to resist.

The questions posed, can Gabriel be trusted? Can Ryan? And who is her best ally?

This is a compulsive read where the suspense never lets up. There are a few twists on the traditional vamp characteristics, and a pleasant surprise that the story is dismissive of genre-clichés. Although the story ends on a cliff-hanger, it still manages to stand alone as a complete story. Which is to say that the hanger is just an opening for the follow-up book, which I am very much looking forward to reading.

Recommended.


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Review | Save My Soul, K.S. Haigwood

Save My Soul by K.S. Haigwood
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A marvellous page-turning fantasy tale:

Kendra’s clock is ticking – but it’s not her biological one…it’s her life span. She has only a short time to save her soul, and the only means by which she can do this presents apparently insurmountable odds.

After a terrible accident, Kendra’s consciousness awakes in the hospital to the sounds of Dr. Adam Chamberlain working furiously to save her life. All of her senses are shut down, except her hearing. And this hearing brings her a voice – the voice of a guardian angel offering her a deal. She can live… for one week, if she can convince Adam to restore his faith in God and believe again. If so, she will save his soul – and her own. If not, both souls will be lost to the demonic angel bent on claiming those souls for Hell.

And if she refuses the deal – she dies on the doctor’s table.

She accepts. She heals faster than any medical expert can explain, and she begins her quest to save Doctor Adam’s soul, and her own life. Whispered to and guided by her guardian angel, Rhyan, Kendra becomes entangled in a confliction of attractions: Mason, the nurse who assisted in the operation and who has a seemingly determined intent to make her fall in love with him; Adam, the doctor, who she feels so certainly is her soulmate, and who she finds herself irresistibly drawn to; and her own guardian angel, Rhyan – who has loved her all of her life.

Adam, whose soul she must save, is rigidly opposed to accepting God and allowing Faith back into his life, and the story plays out with intense pacing as we count down the days, hours, and even minutes of Kendra’s life as she fights desperately against Adam’s resistance.

The story has twists, subterfuges, surprises and betrayals peppered throughout, and keeps you guessing at every turn. Even when Adam finds himself drawn to Kendra, he is still resistant to accepting God… after the tragic events of his past.

There are some delicious surprises as we get further into the story, a story which holds the suspense right up to the last minute. It completes with a wonderfully emotional ending making this a recommended must-read!


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Review | Blacklisted, Luke Romyn

Blacklisted by Luke Romyn
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

High-octane, no holds-barred thriller:

This one DEFIES you to stop reading and… make a cup of tea or whatever. Really hard to stop once you jump on this roller-coaster, even for sleep. It’s a supercharged, all-action adventure story, with thrills, shocks, twists, and a teasing guessing game interlaced into a driven narrative.

Mike leaves behind a troubled childhood, only to wander into a confused and unsettled maturity. Nevertheless, two mentors cross his path and go a long way to straightening him out. But during the course of events, both are lost to him in circumstances that he can not forgive. He begins his ‘revenge’ against the sociopaths of society, and undertakes a mission to purge the streets of those low-life individuals.

Cut forward (to avoid spoilers) and Mike goes from facing severe legal retribution for his actions, to being recruited to a brutal army. His meeting with the enigmatic Carlson and introduction to his operation, sees Mike forcefully enlisted into a deadly crew of killers and psychopaths. The training for this ‘enlistment’ is brutal, but Mike succeeds, despite all odds, to become a valued member of the team – and finally feels that he has found his place in the world – even believing, at last, that he is part of a ‘family’.

The team is assigned a series of missions – all in preparation for one big task… to find and kill the real brains behind a terror threat we are all too aware of. The route to this target is littered with subterfuge, betrayal, deceits and shocks.

The story contains flashback, which fleshes-out Mike’s past life, but doesn’t slow the pace of this action-packed thriller for one moment. This story is a vivid portrayal of violence and retribution. There are numerous twists and turns, none of which you see coming, all designed to keep this an edgy thrill-ride. I found myself thinking this a cross between “Dexter” meets “The Dirty Dozen” … and yet I can’t deny there is something singularly original about this storyline and how the events play out.

Well-researched in armaments, combat, logistics, and military tactics, it’s difficult to know where fact and artistic licence separate – so credit to the author for this incredible blend. A twist on the war-on-terror theme; a subtle commentary on politics, especially as they pertain to 9/11; terrorism and the fear it provokes; and even a hint of romance, all fuse into this plot to keep it multi-dimensional, yet a furious page-turner.

I kept guessing the twists and found myself wrong at every turn. The clues lead you to believe one thing, and then it turns out to be quite another. There is an excellent variety of character profiles throughout the story.

The emotion is crammed in tight amongst the blood ‘n guts – expertly measured so as not to distract you from pondering the big question… Can Mike become the unlikely saviour to the free world?

Well, don’t bet on it. Nothing is as it seems. Only as the story concludes does everything click together. A great read, and recommended.


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Review | Miss Me Not, Tiffany King

Miss Me Not by Tiffany King
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

An emotional and engaging story:


A wonderfully contrasted story of pessimist and reluctant-optimist mentality – as the reader sees Madison, the central character, go through a confusion of attitude and acceptance.

Madison has a heavy guilt problem going back four years – one which completely reshapes her personality. In the early part of the story we see a very angry young girl, bitter and virulent toward everyone other than her friend James. With him, she has a strictly delineated relationship; since James has his own demons to deal with the two of them find a working relationship, bound by a mutual desire to end it all and leave their respective troubles behind. But pipped-at-the-post by a fellow school acquaintance, their suicide pact is rendered useless, and the anger Madison feels toward the tragic young man who ‘stole her thunder’ is evidently and accurately portrayed in the narrative.

This is a girl who, frankly, would have terrified me had I known her in high school: sarcastic, self-piteous, angry, distant, - all of which make you wonder about the past that has led her to be this way. It is therefore all the more warming to see that – little by little – the attention of the good-looking and warm-natured Dean begins to soften Madison’s harsh edges somewhat. Yet she resents herself for this, as though she feels she doesn’t deserve anyone’s kindness. So the question is prompted, can Dean do enough to make a difference?

Unfortunately, this shaky relationship leads to a gradual fracture in her friendship with James; a friendship that will lead to a terrible outcome. And as to Dean, he clearly carries his own guilt and feelings of failure – all vividly portrayed in the sequence of events.

Miss Me Not is a powerful character-driven story about despair and enlightenment. The story moves at a lively pace – with each chapter cleverly ending with a teaser which leads you on to want more information. There is also a pulling storyline which references past pains with all of the principal characters – making you eager to know more about each of them. The subtext on the matter of forced-religion is particularly astute… sadly too often a feature of children's lives. Tiffany King does well to illustrate this social problem so vividly.

And finally, the ending – all neatly tied up in the Epilogue, which I found to be an adroit summation to the events… in fact, the book finishes with a “no muss no fuss” attitude, and I thought this was perfectly executed.

All in all, a good read, an informative and well-paced backdrop, and a cleverly constructed plot.

Recommended.


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Review | Curtains, Scott Nicholson

Curtains by Scott Nicholson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Amazon product description:
A collection of 13 tales of mystery, crime, and suspense from the pages of Cemetery Dance, Blue Murder, The Third Alternative, Crimewave, and more. From tales of vengeful mobsters to dark family secrets, from psychotic killers to reluctant heroes, the stories tap the dark recesses of the human heart and the temptations that bring out the worst and best in all of us. Features the 2006 Year's Best Fantasy & Horror selection "Dog Person." You'll never look at fruit the same way again after experiencing "Watermelon." And junk mail takes a sinister turn in "Letters and Lies."

Includes bonus stories from award-winning writers J.A. Konrath (Origin, the Jack Daniels series) and Simon Wood (Working Stiffs), totaling 57,000 words of digital-pulp thrills.


My review:

Top-Notch Writing!

A quality selection of short-stories, each one vividly detailed with a precise eye for descriptive prose.

The themes vary greatly, and I enjoyed the variety. It’s always rewarding to read an anthology which feels like a blind dip into a selection box… you just don’t know what you’re going to get next.

Considering the fact that they are short pieces, I won’t ‘synopsis’ each individual item: I don’t want to give out spoilers. Suffice it to say, each is narrated in a consistent style in keeping with the title and product description – and what you would expect of this calibre of authorship by such renowned names – and yet showing a differing style of delivery; some slow and detailed, some nippy.

Speaking of ‘themed’…be warned that this not a cheery, candy-floss collection, but rather a dark and deliciously moody reflection on the less-than-sunny-side of life. Now this I enjoyed. I like a good fluffy short story, sure, but I love to see the dark and somewhat twisted aspect of humanity with all its quirks.

A very satisfying read with some clever twists, including the two stories which unexpectedly link up.

Recommended.


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Review | Molly Hacker Is Too Picky, Lisette Brodey

Molly Hacker Is Too Picky! by Lisette Brodey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Brilliantly observational rom-com!


Very sharp and witty commentary of a single woman who won't settle for `Mr Anybody' ... and believes that, despite her cynical outlook on dating and romance, she deserves `Mr Right'. She'll fiercely fend off any attempts by others to make her settle.

Molly Hacker is not for compromising!

As a reporter for The Swansea Herald, Molly turns down the opportunity to be a press-pass-carrying socialite...in favour of doing the obituary column. She spurns the attempts of the manipulative Naomi (an awful, self-righteous, social-ladder-climbing, deadly-nightshade of a woman)... to be set up on a blind date with some man that Naomi is determined to match-make.

Yet, notwithstanding the machinations of the dreadful Naomi, as the story progresses Molly goes from zero partner-prospects to too many to handle. And still, despite her overwhelming choice of suitors, Molly remains determinedly picky, and wanders even into neurotic.

On the surface, Molly is a tough, feisty, no-nonsense woman, who is juggling several potential relationships in a skilful but considerate fashion. As each of her suitors is so very different from one another, and offers her different prospects, she appears to be making the best of each in a caring and pragmatic way. But beneath her cool exterior, she is pestered by memories of her lost `true love', and her own insecurities. This provides a wonderful contrast within her personality which makes you all the more curious ... what exactly will it take to make Molly happy?

I particularly enjoyed the snipey attitude illustrated in dialogue, the lovely comedic expressions - many of which are made as though she is talking-to-camera, like an aside to the narrative run - and the clever use of metaphor. I don't often laugh out loud, but this indefatigable character is both passive-aggressive, and vulnerable with her over-analyses.

What Molly's big problem seems to be is her inability to trust. An issue which I felt - without the succour of her irrepressible and flamboyant friend Randy - would most likely drive her insane!

With all of the men vying for Molly's affection, the suspense element kicked in as I tried to guess which of these very different characters was going to reach through to her. I also wondered... will any of them get there?

Now, to the best `fist-thump-on-table-triumphant-yell' section I have read in a long time. The Big Event. No spoilers here - so suffice it to say this was expertly delivered, tied up so many threads that the author wove in earlier chapters, and outcomed in a way you would never guess was coming. Really, I was thumping fist and shouting YES! ... Superb!

And just when you think you've had all the twists you can handle...wait `til the end. It's a brilliant turn of events, and settles the entire story in the most surprising denouement.

Recommended with a high Five!


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