Category: ebook



Taxi - Timing (Book 4)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.

View all my reviews


Taxi - Trauma (Book 3)Taxi – Trauma by Sophia DeLuna

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Except for the $.99 a section, I am loving the story between Ulrike and Carmen. They are two very different women, each with their own set of insecurities and powers. There are even distinct language and culture differences. But that makes for a better story, I think.

This is for section three. It’s call book three, but I don’t think any of these sections can be called a book. Long chapters, maybe.

Trauma is the title and trauma is what it is about. I found this section to be quite truthful in that poor Carmen does have some problems with PTSD/anxiety and depression going on. I think the author did a great job pulling the reader into how that feels from the inside of the person experiencing the mental anguish and what it looks like to those who love her. I don’t think I have seen it all so well done!

So far, what I really like in this series of episodes is how well defined each of the main individuals relationships with others is and how the whole group of people grow through their experiences. Great job, Sophia DeLuna!

View all my reviews


Taxi - Trials (Book 2)Taxi – Trials by Sophia DeLuna

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Get ready! I got behind on my reviewing, but the reading just kept going.

This one, the second of the Taxi series by Sophia DeLuna. Remember how peeved I was that Taxi was merely a short story? Yeah, well, it seems there is more over on Smashwords. My only problem with getting it this way is that it is that each section is $.99. In the olden days that wouldn’t have been a problem but now that I am on such a tight budget. And if I didn’t like the characters and the story itself I could ignore the next parts. No cliffhanger to make me anxious between reads, but still, as I said before, I wanted to hang with my new friends and see what happens.

I don’t want to tell you much about the story. I hate spoilers as much as short stories. Needless to say, the new relationship deepens along with the insecurities we all have as it starts to take off. Hence the title, Trials, I suppose.

When I get ebooks from Smashwords, I usually download it to my MoonReader Pro. That way I can listen and read on the same reader. If I download to my Kindle, I have to listen on my older (keyboard) Kindle while reading along on the tablet. Can’t wait until I can afford the Kindle Fire DX 8.9 as it will have a better text-to-speech voice than MRP. I really need that TTS feature as my eyes can’t handle too much reading at a time, and you can tell I love my reading!

Anyway, I still have more to review. By the way, if you are into LGBT stories, especially of a romantic nature, you might like these. My only wish is that the stories were all in one book rather that $.99 a bit.

View all my reviews


A Witch's Magic: A Love Triangle With a Magical Twist (Heart of a Witch Book 2)A Witch’s Magic: A Love Triangle With a Magical Twist by H.T. Night

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Can I give a three and a half star rating? I loved the first book, but this one so left me flat. The first dealt with the power of a blooming witch trying to decide between good and black magic and the decision that needed to be made between her two great guys. Unfortunately, book two was more of the same angst. Nothing got resolved.

I was happy to hang out with old friends. I had grown to really like the characters, even the not so good ones. But I got very frustrated without any progress being made in this book. In the first book, there were even bits of seemingly real information about how to find your center and power. Not much was in this one.

AND I might have been happy just hanging with the friends as I mentioned before, but the book needed more editing. There were places I had to reread sentences to make sense of things. A word left out or not the right word. A sentence of present tense mixed in with mostly past.

Even still, I can’t wait to read the next book.

View all my reviews


TaxiTaxi by Sophia DeLuna

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Too short! But that is what I always say after reading a short story. It was just right for that time just before bed when I’ve just finished reading longer books. You know, not ready to go to sleep yet, and not wanting to get involved in another longer book. I hate when I start to read something and can’t remember the next day what I read so I have to start over. With a short story, you have the whole sweet tale to sleep on. So I guess I shouldn’t hate them. BUT I always want to know what happens next!

What is nice about this story is getting to be in another country in a taxi. You get to know the driver quite well during the story and learn about the passenger a bit. It was a fun read. I just wish the author, Sophia DeLuna would flesh it out into a full sized book. There is a lot here she could work with!

View all my reviews


Spirit Binder (The Cascadian Chronicles #1)Spirit Binder by Meghan Ciana Doidge

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I love BookRooster.com! I have discovered so many gems this way. Books I might not have been able to afford or wouldn’t have known about otherwise. I have nearly one hundred books on my queue starting way back in 2013. This one came to me about that long ago. Yes, I am slow to read all they send me, but they don’t seem to mind my ADD of books.

For a while, I only read my BookRoosters on my Moon Reader Pro. Now I find I can send by email to my Kindles. I love MRP because I can read and listen on the same device. But with the emailed one, I can make sure to get the books sent to my tablet or any of my Kindles. Sure, I have to listen on the older Kindle while reading it on my tablet or Fire, but it reminds me to read it more quickly as I can see readily all the books I have waiting my eyes on the carousel.

Now for the book itself. Spirit Binder feels to me an Epic Fantasy as there is magic, and swords involved. Not my favorite genre of fantasy, but, with the main character a strong female, I felt more inclined to get involved in the story. I know there are those who LOVE Tolkien. Not me. Too many warring men. Just not my kind of story. Theo is gusty and smart. Though the book starts with her at a disadvantage, having forgotten the last ten years of her life, she claims back her own bit by bit with all the love and power she can–and that’s quite a lot!

Luckily, BookRooster sent me book two so I can follow up in the near future. How cool is that?

View all my reviews


The Girl GodThe Girl God by Trista Hendren

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Oh, wow. I picked this small but mighty book up for free today from Amazon. I was intrigued by the picture on the front cover and the title. I thought I was getting a children’s book. I believe this is an ‘everybody’ book.

The story was from a mother to her daughter. A sweet simple story. But the wisdom of the story runs deeply. Then there are the quotations throughout; each capturing a piece of my soul. All the illustrations were engaging. I wish I bought this in tree form as I would like to spend more time with the book and with the pictures. At least I can go back to this one in my ‘cloud’.

Because this was so wonderful I went to find other books by Trista Hendren. Yay! The were free with Kindle Unlimited!

View all my reviews


The Art FacultyThe Art Faculty by P. J. Vye

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Disclaimer: I picked this e-book up from BookRooster dot com quite a while ago. Sorry that I am just now getting to it.

This story was unique. It started out with a recently orphaned teen. I liked her right away. Since it was so long ago that I was sent this book, I couldn’t figure out why I got it. I just kept reading. And even though it was written in the present tense, and in the first person, I got used to it. It wasn’t long into the story that I saw that the story was a science fiction. Space flight, other worlds. Yay! My kind of story!

Look, really, this got me as it was the right-brainers, the creative, musical, artistic, and dramatic save the day. How often does that happen in sci-fi? And the main character is a female and she is the hero though not in her own mind. Yes, there is a bit of romance, but it isn’t the guiding force. I hope I haven’t given spoilers. There is so much in this seemingly quiet story. Action takes over the end of the story. Meanwhile, get to know what the main character is going through. There was so much that I could relate to.

I hope P. J. Vye, the author will get this out for the general public. This would have been a favorite story for me as a teen. There are others who will love it, too!

View all my reviews


Water DarkWater Dark by F.T. McKinstry

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Disclaimer: I was given this e-book for an honest review.

So… honestly, I wanted to give the book three stars. I just don’t like epic, male-lead fantasies. But what brought it up to four stars was how well written this story was.

I listened to the story through my text-to-speech feature on my Kindle while following along on my tablet. It was a fast read. And only as I was preparing this review did I see that this is part of a larger series. No wonder I just couldn’t feel attached to any of the characters. I found myself lost at times and re-reading a passage to see what I missed.

Even so, I think if you are the ‘epic fantasy’ type, this would be up your alley. If nothing else it is a great example of excellent writing.

View all my reviews


Fever 1793Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I finished this masterpiece a couple of days ago. It was part of my anti-depression about my husband being in the hospital while I was home with fibro-flare. In this case, I would say misery loves company. Or… at least things aren’t as bad as it was then.

This was a birthday present from me–to me! I had picked up the whispersync for voice also so I was able to listen to Emily Bergl’s narration. I have to admit she is not my favorite narrator. But once she was into the story I felt drawn in and forgot that there was a narrator.

Laurie Halse Anderson always amazes me with her works. This book is no exception. Wow! The amount of research that she dug through to write this fiction is overwhelming! This is based on a real epidemic that happened just a few years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Yellow Fever takes over. But no one knows yet that it is due to the mosquitoes. Medicine was still in its infancy. Through Ms. Anderson, we get to see what could have happened to a young girl, her family and her community.

Okay. Confession time. I have never been a history buff. I did have a fabulous professor in college that made me appreciate it a bit. That class was when I was in my forties. So imagine how long it was that I hated history. I think with books like this I might have been able to relate to historical events as a middle grader on. This younger generation is so lucky to have such writers as Laurie Halse Anderson!

View all my reviews

Amin Academy

Education, Information, Motivation

WhatIf.in.net - Alternate Realities

Where Curiosity Meets Creativity

Luso Loonie — Devin Meireles

Portuguese-Canadian Writing About This Portuguese Thing of Ours

UNDER THE WILL... OVER THE DRAMA...

Inheritance. Narcissism. Turf. Welcome to the family.

Selma

Finding the extra in the ordinary

Sip, Snack, See

A Blog About Food and Travels

Golu lodhi

I upload photos & videos Golu lodhi village pairakhedi

Hunza

Travel,Tourism, precious story "Now in hundreds of languages for you."

IsabellaJoshua

DISCOVER A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE

intricate cantrips

twisted yarns, unraveled

Introverted Growth

The Introvert's Roadmap to Self Discovery and Growth

Histopedia

story telling from history

KaustubhaReflections

Where ancient wisdom meets modern technology. Stories that illuminate the wonders of science, culture, and life — crafted with human creativity and a touch of AI magic.

Roads Lesser Traveled

Life is just down the road lesser traveled....

Enlarge my heart

In the Quiet Space of a Benedictine Heart: Seeking God in Every Moment

A.M. Barnich

My Author Page

TheEnlightenedMind622

Open Your Mind