Review: Outsider: The Flawed Series Book Two by Becca J. Campbell

Outsider: The Flawed Series Book Two by Becca J. Campbell

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I was given the ARC by the author for an honest review. Because of it being an ARC, I will not count into this review any of the editing errors that I did pick up. In fact, the story caught me up so firmly that I hardly noticed these oopsies.

About that story! Wow! Told from the viewpoints of the main character, Josh, and his female interest, Alex, and their nemesis, Nic who is out to kill Alex. I like that you can get into the heads of each of these people. Sure, one could guess at the insecurities young people have about starting a new relationship, but Ms. Becca Campbell (author) gives us deeper insights than those surface issues. Put into that mix suddenly awakening abilities and one can understand the deep confusion. And seeing what was motivating the bad guy was ingenious!

This series is so much fun! It keeps one on the edge of one’s seat wondering what is going to happen? How will they get out of this one? Try to read this one so that the last half is long before bedtime. I was lucky that I was able to finish long before sleep. There are nightmare elements that I didn’t want to have entering my subconscious. (Course the next book I picked up then was by Neil Gaiman, gulp!)

It had been a long time since I read the first of the Flawed series, Flawed. Even so I found a reread wasn’t necessary. Enough review is set up in this book two that one wouldn’t feel lost. In fact, one could read this without having read the first book. But the depth you would have from reading the series in order is unbeatable. I highly recommend reading this series if you are inclined to read fantasy books about new or young adults. This one was more contemporary than other fantasies. In that way, it is fun to visit Colorado and California as they are.

I can’t wait to read the next in the series!

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Review: Omega by S.M. Reine

Omega by S.M. Reine

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Disclosure: I received this ebook from the author in exchange for an honest review.

But, hey! This was another Sara Reine adventure! How could I not love it? Yet another series is grown from the Six Moon Summer beginning. How it is possible Ms. Reine can be so prolific? She’s the alpha writer!

I have to admit to being a bit lost at first. What in the world is an Omega shifter? But that is, indeed, what the question of the book is. Even though we get to see Rylie for a bit, this story isn’t from her point of view. Now we get to see what has happened to the world since it ended and started again. Yet evil still exists and causes all kind of problems. Our Omega shifter must learn to deal with it all and figure out where she fits in.

This was not my favorite of all the books, but it was fun to revisit old friends and see that there is still hope of more story yet to come.

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Review: Desert Wind by Sophia DeLuna

Desert Wind by Sophia DeLuna

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a delightfully different kind of story. Beyond this, I plead ignorance. I haven’t heard of the deities mentioned in the story. I assume this was a world and goddess that emerge from the author’s imagination, yet I think I could bow to the higher being who shows miracles of kindness.

As the title suggests the story takes place in a desert land. Other than that I can’t say I know where in our world or when it may have happened. Still this couple is pregnant. It’s wanted but if both parties are lesbian, how and with whom had the mother conceived?

Now, I admit to loving this story more than other short stories by Sophia DeLuna. Still I beg, plead! Please tell more! This could not only be a book. It could be a series! I loved it!

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Review: Fire and Ice by Sophia DeLuna

Fire and Ice by Sophia DeLuna

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Oh, how I wish this were a book rather than a very short story. A writer writes at the coffee shop. Truth being better than fiction? We will never know. Please, Ms. DeLuna, tell us more!

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Review: Taxi – Talk by Sophia DeLuna

Taxi – Talk by Sophia DeLuna

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Remember when I read the first four episodes of Taxi? Well, I got a welcome surprise after the review of the fourth one. Ms. Sophia DeLuna, the author of these great stories, sent me a sweet email that included coupons for the next three books in the series. Yay! Thank you so much. With my tight budget, it is often hard to decide if the next dollar is for food or reading. I hate to admit that I don’t look like I would if I chose books more often. Or maybe it is the fact that one can do both eating and reading comfortably at the same time?

At any rate, I got to the reading as soon as I could. And I think that Taxi 5, Talk, is one of my favorites. It is so real and honest. It touched deep emotional threads for me. This book deepens the relationship of Carmen and Ulrike. You see Carmen, still dealing with her bit of PTSD, or maybe there is a deeper issue going on, like social anxiety, depression, or other mental problems. I found I related to Carmen very much, phone phobia, isolation, etc. And Ulrike is fleshed out in how she and Carmen’s cat bond over yogurt, sharing a spoon. Carmen cringed and so did I. But as different as Carmen and Ulrike are, you see them working hard to communicate and deepen their love for each other.

By the way, I just did a review of New Hire: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show…, where my complaint was that the characters weren’t deep at all. In comparison, this Taxi series has what I think give fictional characters real life. In this series, I was surprised at how well I had pictured the two characters. It had to be how the author described them. I went to the author’s website: http://www.sophiadeluna.com/ and under the Taxi category I found the author’s rendition of her characters. I would have known who they were had I met them on the street. That is how good Ms. DeLuna is creating her characters. She’s quite the artist, as well! I can’t wait to read #6!

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Review: Triptych by Java Davis

Triptych by Java Davis

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In the GoodReads blurb, it says, “Triptych, a Mechanical Romance Tongue-in-cheek love triangle spanning from New Jersey to Arizona!” Let me show my stupidity here. I was able to get this ebook for free way back in 2012. Yikes! And I’m sorry it took so long for me to get at it. But in my own defense: The title didn’t grab me. That blurb line didn’t grab me. So it kept falling down me ‘read it’ list. And now that I have read it I find I don’t understand the title or that first line any better.

Having had it so long, it was hard for me to know where I got it from. I couldn’t find it on my Amazon or Smashwords lists. Finally, I located the email from GoodRead where the author, Java Davis, advertised her giveaway days for this book. Thank you, Ms. Davis. And I’m sorry it took so long.

As for the story itself, I found it fun and interesting. I found that Java was able to write interesting characters. The love triangle wasn’t as angsty as other books make it. These characters were established adults growing through the experiences of their lives. Even the less-savory people in this book were real and in that case rather likable. As in real life, there are people that just have a hard time figuring out how to be adults. There are others who are forced to grab life and do their best for others and themselves. That is proven once again in this story. Religion or philosophies are analysed as truths the characters lived by and how everyone can find something useful in another person’s point of view. There was no preaching. Just people adjusting to each other. I like that. I felt I learned something about life from these characters.

This was a fast read with depth. Here is where you can find it on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Triptych-ebook/… It is free for Kindle Unlimited and only $1.99 for the Kindle version. I think it is worth the read. Try it!

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Review: Taxi – Timing by Sophia DeLuna

Taxi – Timing by Sophia DeLuna

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The trauma that started in book/section three continues. It is so bad that it could be the end of the relationship between Carmen and her lover and even plays a part in her relationships with family and friends. But is time on her side? Is there a point where your trauma can isolate you to a point of starvation. Can she find her inner strength before everyone gives up on her?

This may be the most personal of all. If you haven’t lived with trauma that is that debilitating you might not understand what Carmen is going through. But I felt the author, Sophia Deluna, did a marvelous job getting inside the heads of characters of this section. And something I haven’t written about in my reviews of the previous Taxi installments is her writing. I love it! Her descriptions and ability to tell a story, reeling in this reader, hook, line and sinker. All the relationships seem real. I am looking forward to reading the rest of this story.

As with the other few bits of this story, I am most upset by the price per bit. I am now at the end of my budget for the month so I won’t be able to read part five for a month. It is this that is causing the less than five stars for me. At least with Kindle Unlimited I can still read a book when the money runs out. Oh well. I still have a few of Ms. DeLuna’s other stories downloaded to peruse over the next few weeks.

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Review: The Exemeus by Folami Morris

The Exemeus by Folami Morris

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I picked up this e-book about two years ago from BookRooster.com I’m glad I finally gave it a shot. This was a fun ride.

It starts in a dystopian future when a nerd, forever the recipient of the wedgies and other tricks of the bullies. It doesn’t take long to like this kid. In spite of himself, he is a smart yet patient young man.

Without going into spoilers… hmmm…how to do this? Well, he ends up with a journal that his mother kept back in our days. Through this and a few other happenings, we see how much he is like his mother and we watched his magic bloom.

Well, that didn’t give anything away, but it doesn’t seem all that exciting. But it was! I really loved the characters, even the bad guys. They were all well fleshed out. The plot was an interesting take on the dried up meme of dystopia.

When I get new books that aren’t from Amazon I usually download them to my Moon Reader Pro where I can read along with text-to-speech. That way I don’t need a light like I do for my older generation Kindles. MRP is backlit like the Kindle app on my Tablet or on the Fire. It was a very fast read. I was sucked in right from the beginning and didn’t want to let it go until the end. Sleep and other needs got in the way of the read.

There is to be a book two. I can’t wait to read it. I didn’t feel this book left me with a cliffhanger. We know how THOSE bug me! I guess the only reason I didn’t give it five stars is because there were places that I felt there were holes in the story, that things had been left out with little segue between parts. I managed to pick up the threads but felt unnerved by how it was done.

By the way, It is now $.99 on Amazon for the Kindle version. Not bad for a great bit of entertainment!

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Review: Nica of Los Angeles by Sue Perry

Nica of Los Angeles by Sue Perry

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Ever give points just for its uniqueness? I knew I would from almost the first page of Nica of Los Angeles. In fact, that uniqueness nearly had me closing the book and moving on. What a loss that would have been! Instead, I substituted Frames with the thought of other dimensions. I could hear one of the scientists on the Science Channel talking about how another dimension would be as close as a breath away from us. Plopping that bit of science into my understanding of the story helped me believe.

Once one can embrace the unbelievability of this story, it becomes quite exciting. The characters are well developed and likable. Even Watts Towers. It is fun to visit familiar parts of LA the one in this reality and what it might be like in other dimensions.

It has been a couple days since I finished the story. I haven’t known exactly what to say about it and I have been trying to figure that out since I started reading it. By the way, I received the free version of the book from the author for an honest review. But I bought the $.99 at Amazon so I could read it from any of my readers. As I have stated above, I loved the story and the characters.

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Review: Deadly Wrong by S.M. Reine

Deadly Wrong by S.M. Reine

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I thought I was caught up with Ms. Sara Reine’s series. That’s what I get for thinking! She sent me another couple books to review. Whew! That is one prolific author!!!!!

Okay, my tags may include zombies. Don’t be afraid she’s not the “Brains” kind. She just a little undead. Or should I say, a little or almost dead? I love the main character. I like her a lot more than the usual person who inhabits the Preternatural Affairs series. Even though Cesar Chavez is an interesting person, I think Ms. Isobel Stonecrow is much more interesting. Even if she is nearly dead.

When I get e-books sent to me, I have the choice to use my USB to transfer to my Kindle, or email to my Kindle address. But it is so much easier to download the e-book into my Moon Reader Pro. Then I don’t need to read it on my Kindle and my Tablet or Fire together. Because I need the text-to-speech feature I need two items to read with. On MRP I listen on my tablet and the font is adjustable. So it makes me very happy, everything on one reader.

This was a quick read for me. I found it fun and scary. I mean, it does take us to Dis/Hell for a while with demons and nightmares all around. But Isobel can hold her own and even when she makes mistakes they seem to go in her favor in the end. I can’t wait to read more!

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