Goodreads/Amazon/Author Website Release date: July 7, 2016 Publisher: Bookouture Genre: Thriller/Mystery Goodreads blurb: Grace hasn’t been the same since the death of her best friend Charlie. She is haunted by Charlie’s words, the last time she saw her, and in a bid for answers, opens an old memory box of Charlie’s. It soon becomes clear there […]
“The Liebster Award 2016 is an award that exists only on the internet, and is given to bloggers by other bloggers. The earliest case of the award goes as far back as 2011. Liebster in German means sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, and welcome.”
Not bad for a fledgling book review blog, huh?
So here’s what I’m supposed to do:
Well, riding horses, of course
My honeymoon in San Francisco
Edgar Allan Poe
yes
This is a tricky question, but…I would find a way to reward honesty and integrity in politics that would outweigh whatever they are getting for being not that right now
Um, yes, I want to be published. But I have to get over the crippling fear of failure first.
Memories….my marriage and my kiddos
Marrying my hubby
I’ve married my prince charming, everyone else is just eye candy
Mildly successful writer
Despite popular mockery and academic criticism, it continues to outsell every genre, including Classic Literature, year after year. In 2014 alone, Americans spent 1.08 billion dollars on these books and it has sparked some the most people, and most hated, franchises in the last ten years with no signs of slowing down. I’m, of course,…
I don’t think they run them anymore, but I always kind of liked Capital One’s “What’s in Your Wallet?” campaign. My fondness for the ads might have something to do with the fact that Alec Baldwin and Samuel L. Jackson make excellent spokespeople. I’m just saying. Anyway … I thought it might be fun to […]
Within the last year I decided, somewhat skeptically to give audiobooks a try. Clearly, I’m a total bookworm, but I had never in my life listened to a book. Why? I honestly figured that I would get bored just listening and probably fall asleep. Though I liked being read to as a child, I can’t […]
By: C.T. Phillips
Narrated by: Jeffrey Kafer
GoodReads Summary: Gary Karkofsky is an ordinary guy with an ordinary life living in an extraordinary world. Supervillains, heroes, and monsters are a common part of the world he inhabits. Yet, after the death of his hometown’s resident superhero, he gains the amazing gift of the late champion’s magical cloak. Deciding he prefers to be rich rather than good, Gary embarks on a career as Merciless: The Supervillain Without Mercy.
But is he evil enough to be a villain in America’s most crime-ridden city?
Gary soon finds himself surrounded by a host of the worst of Falconcrest City’s toughest criminals. Supported by his long-suffering wife, his ex-girlfriend turned professional henchwoman, and a has-been evil mastermind, Gary may end up being not the hero they want but the villain they need.
I’ve never properly fit into any group and comic-lovers is one of those groups I spend a lot of time on the outside looking in. I discovered a long time ago that I love the stories of superheroes. I love art that goes into a graphic novel. But I’m also cheap. I have been since my allowance was $2 a week. I mean, why spend the equivalent of a novel on a thin magazine that entertained me for 25-30 minutes when I could buy an actual book that maybe I could stretch out a whole week to read amid all the activities of my childhood? I loved the comfort of knowing I still had more to read and would carry a book around, reading in the school cafeteria, standing in line with my mother at the grocery store, when riding around with mom on her errands….you get the picture.
Anyway, comic books were not the most bang I could get for my buck back in the day. But that never stopped me from finding a way to know the story. Others who had extensive collections would tell me the stories and I’d listen to the geekfest arguments intensely. So even though I was so sheltered as a child, that in 1986 I didn’t know who Michael Jackson was, I knew Wonder Woman, Superman, Spiderman and any Xman you could name.
Add that outside-looking-in thing, to the cartoons of the nineties, the movies lately and ignore the fact that I’d like to hear the story from someone else who’s read the comic and you might just get why I like superheroes but have never been fully invested.
Take that perspective rather than the geeky one and you’ll understand why I jumped on this book as soon as I could.
I loved the cover from the start even though I still can’t pinpoint what it says to me. It makes my lips twitch up every time I see it.
Two things I found most interesting while listening:
The Rules of Supervillainy is campy and staggered as if someone put together a series of five graphic novels in one place. It is perfect for the book reader in me looking for more bang for my buck. Rather than buying each of those five comics, I’ve got the whole story in one place. That makes me jump and yeah inside.
This is not technically an origin story even being the first in a series. Nor does it leave the reader completely hanging at the end (a thing that some writers are doing to boost sales that just leaves dryness in my mouth).
Yes, there is an opening at the end for more. However, for this part of the story, the main threads are tied up neatly at the end even though the pattern might be a bit more random than some would like. The open end is just what you would expect from the first of a novel about superheroes and villains. You don’t want it all wrapped up in a neat little bow when you just know another adventure waits just around the corner.
Jeffery Kafer is familiar to me from his work on Preternatural Affairs, another series I completely recommend. While he doesn’t have the range of someone like Patrick McLean, his straight telling of the story with just a hint of emotion reminds me of how I read to my kids. (My husband is the one who does the voices.) Everything is clear and dry and a perfect rendition of how I think Gary would actually be telling the story. I really don’t know how Mr. Kafer got through this with a straight face. He is such a professional. I applaud the result.
By: Terri Reid
Narrated by: Erin Spencer
Series: A Mary O’Reilly Paranormal Mystery
GoodReads Summary: Dying is what changed Mary O’Reilly’s life. Well, actually, coming back from the dead and having the ability to communicate with ghosts is really what did it.
Now, a private investigator in rural Freeport, Illinois, Mary’s trying to learn how to incorporate her experience as a Chicago cop and new-found talent into a real job. Her challenge is to solve the mysteries, get real evidence (a ghost’s word just doesn’t hold up in court), and be sure the folks in town, especially the handsome new police chief, doesn’t think she’s nuts.
Twenty-four years ago, a young woman drowned in the swimming pool of a newly elected State Senator. It was ruled an accident. But now, as the Senator prepares to move on to higher positions, the ghost of the woman is appearing to the Senator’s wife.
Mary is hired to discover the truth behind the death. She unearths a connection between the murder and the disappearance of five little girls whose cases, twenty-four years later, are still all unsolved. As she digs further, she becomes the next target for the serial killers’ quest to tie up all his loose ends.
Ok, I’ll admit it. I picked this up from one of my free lists. I can’t remember when or which one, I’ve had this on my TBR list for so freakin’ long. Somewhere along the line, I added narration for the low, low price of $1.99. So I paid $2 and change for the opportunity to listen to this.
I think the cover appealed to me. I think the summary appealed to me. After listening to the sample clip a few dozen times, the narrator didn’t do that much for me. She didn’t make me want to listen to the book. I think I finally got it because I was running out of daytime listening. (Deep, rumbling male voices for night / Bright, upbeat female for day.)
Hell, even the first chapter kind of rubbed me the wrong way. Erin Spencer didn’t impress me as the narrator to enhance the dark and creepy.
But to be honest…the blend of Terri Reid’s writing and Erin Spencer as Mary O’Reilly…well, that’s just gold.
By the third chapter, I was hooked. By the end, I’d acquired an appreciation for the voice I hadn’t liked to start with. Erin Spencer is Mary O’Reilly. (Please don’t let me find out somewhere in the middle of freakin’ 15 books that someone else narrates this series.)
Add the ghosts, the devastatingly handsome police chief, a chewy mystery or two and that’s a recipe for a good afternoon (doing dishes, folding clothes…not stopping the cleaning because you’d have to take out your earbuds to do anything else….)
This is not your typical female running headlong into danger. This is not one where the gorgeous guy saves the day. This is different.
(Yeah, I knew what was what way before the end. It’s the journey getting there that I enjoyed.)
Hell, I enjoyed the whole experience so much, I’ve already purchased the next book. Guess what I’m doing tomorrow…. Well, the house is pretty much clean so yardwork?
In the Required Reading Revisited Book Club we focus on books considered “Required Reading” by most educational institutions, i.e. books you read (or were supposed to read) in school – either high …
By: Sarah Noffke
Narrated By: Elizabeth Klett
GoodReads Summary: Around the world humans are hallucinating after sleepless nights.
In a sterile, underground institute the forecasters keep reporting the same events.
And in the backwoods of Texas, a sixteen-year-old girl is about to be caught up in a fierce, ethereal battle.
Meet Roya Stark. She drowns every night in her dreams, spends her hours reading classic literature to avoid her family’s ridicule, and is prone to premonitions—which are becoming more frequent. And now her dreams are filled with strangers offering to reveal what she has always wanted to know: Who is she? That’s the question that haunts her, and she’s about to find out. But will Roya live to regret learning the truth?
(I received a free audible copy in exchange for an honest review.)
I find it interesting that the beginning of the story drops the reader directly into the story, so much so that it doesn’t feel like the first book. I think I even did a bit of googling to make sure this was the first in the series, that I hadn’t missed something vital. (I hate reading things out of turn.)
After listening to the story from beginning to end, I am thankful that Noffke did not take us through the often overdone mysterious and usually unbelievable origin story. I’m glad we simply learned through reflection Roya’s immediate past. Of course, I still think that opening should throw off most readers, but judging by the majority of the reviews, it simply doesn’t. (Just browsing, I notice there are very few reviews rating lower than three stars.)
I also notice the comparison to The Hunger Games Trilogy: The Hunger Games / Catching Fire / Mockingjay
Noffke creates a unique blend of characters. The ones that make up Roya’s team are more understanding and welcoming than most. The characters we are supposed to either hate or write off as “bad” for whatever reason are extreme. For instance, Roya’s “family” is of a kind I’ve never had the displeasure to meet or read of before, (excepting the way Harry Potter’s family treated him.) Goat girl is the extreme kind of entitled bitch we expect to dislike but she takes it to a completely new level.
Sarah Noffke has a unique turn of phrase. Descriptions from setting to character movement and emotion are interesting and keep you listening.
The villain is a nominal character entering the stage at not quite the end making this story’s focus on Roya’s characterization. This story is about Roya learning about herself, about her past, her powers and what is expected of her.
It is not one of those books where the ending is not really an ending but a cliffhanger intended to generate books sales for the sequel. It actually has an ending with the whisper of a promise for future books. (Of course, I say that now, even knowing there are two more books in the Lucidite series.)
There are certain things I look for with female narrators. I’m beginning to think that makes me a little picky, especially since there are tons of audiophiles out there who don’t care who narrates as long as they are good and the production quality is good.
I pick male narrators for nighttime listening. Not that I expect the book to be bad enough to bore me to sleep, but something about a deep voice is calming and sometimes keeps insomnia at bay. (I mean, James Marsters reading the Dresden Files (15 books)
Female narrators are for daytime. Their voices are of a higher pitch, enough to keep me awake, focused and attentive.
These narrators have to create distinct voices for each character, create believable accents that don’t grate on the nerves like nails on a chalkboard, and for those females, they have to lack that whiny quality most females put into their main character (especially, those poor melancholy teenagers with an overabundance of angst.)
Elizabeth Klett does a good job fulfilling my requirements which makes me wonder why she doesn’t feel right in the role of Roya. I’d be hard pressed to find a better female narrator who fit into my pickiest of standards, but Elizabeth just does not sound like Roya.
Of course, everyone has their opinion and I keep browsing through other reviews to find one like mine (there are none as of yet, if you wanted to know).
As for the series of books…even though I have only read two of Noffke’s dream walking worlds, I would recommend them simply for their considerable entertainment.
Click here to go to Amazon
The past few days found me perusing some different avenues for new book suggestions. I’ve glanced through the New York Times book reviews, skimmed a page from a fashion magazine, even actually clicked on Audible’s suggestions of “great new reads.”
Maybe I’m not the target audience for those bursts of recommendations. I don’t run to the bestseller lists. I don’t read what everyone else is reading just because I see it on everyone’s reading list, coffee table and twitter post.
(Although I might grab a hugely discounted copy or borrow from the library after months of hype.
I actually read all of Twilight, thinking it might get better. And for my sister who bought the copy for me.
I’m still trying to forge through Fifty Shades. I think I might be in chapter two.
Both of which insulted my intelligence, my hard-earned English degree and my sense of art in fiction.)
I’ve found myself in recent years more open to new authors and more respectful of the effort it takes to get published (when you don’t know/blow someone in the editor chairs).
But I do have a few genres I stick with, because I like them, not because they are popular. So I never read Eat, Pray, Love or the Life of Pi. That doesn’t discount them as being good or bad according to my one opinion among many. And it doesn’t make me look smarter if I have read them.
I don’t belong to a book club. I don’t follow the crowd. I don’t read popular books because they are popular. I read the books that fall into a broad category of genres that I enjoy. That way, when I review them, I have experience to back up my opinions. I know the rules and tropes and I know that when those are artfully broken it won’t fit into a specific label.
That is why, when I am actually approached to do a review (rare and exciting), I appreciate the one who’s researched even the tiniest bit my reading habits. (That is probably the most you’ll find on me online: what I read.)
I appreciate finding authors who are a little twisted in the imagination and don’t follow the formula scene by scene.
I appreciate authors who push the boundaries of their genres at every level, from those who just kind of nudge them out of shape to those who burst through, shattering rainbows of happiness.
I appreciate those who have the fortitude to pursue their dreams and get that nagging story out for writing the story not just churning out the formulas with cliché after cliché.
So I’m raising my glass in a toast to the writers who are artists with passion and dedication and who have enthralled, surprised and entertained me. You may not have the paid for hype, but you have the talent. Thank you for sharing.
tripping the page fantastic 