Children of the Fog Army. Help my author-friend hit the top 100! Very good book, worth much more than the Kindle price of $.99!!!! Read my review at GoodReads: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/297364327
Category: Reviews
Fallen Angel: An Only in Tokyo Mystery by Jonelle Patrick
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I do not usually like mysteries. That said, I love this series, Only in Tokyo, by Jonelle Patrick. There are so many layers to the stories, plots and sub-plots. In fact, she writes similarly to the wooden locks found in the story. I love the characters: Yumi and Kenji. Not just them, Ms. Patrick manages to build believable support characters and antagonists.
Murder and blood, though part of every day news, are topics I find hard to look at. In reading, I am usually into books as far away from reality as I can. But the way Jonelle treats that part of the story is gentle. She just presents the characters’ reactions to the deed. I nearly tagged this as a cozy mystery, but it didn’t feel very warm and safe. It felt more like Castle than CSI if that helps the future buyer. It doesn’t have the humor of Castle but the warmth is there.
Romance is a driving force in the series, but it isn’t angsty or squishy like chic-fic. It is more a growing relationship of school friends who find themselves in a sort of working relationship.
The most fun for me is learning about the Japanese culture. Tokyo becomes a character unto itself. Thank you, Jonelle, for letting me read your book!
Visit Jonelle’s Website at: http://jonellepatrick.me/
CWin Post. Wins best Paper.li of the day for me! Chris has added a few more sources adding science and literature to his newsy news.
Ravenous by Heidi Loney
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I was given this book free for review. If it wasn’t for that and a fascinating plot, and characters I cared about, I would have not finished reading it.
If there is one thing for sure, that drew me in, I love dystopia books. Not fond of zombies, oops, lombies. (Still not sure where that come from.)
Then I am a frustrated greenhorn farmer living in an apartment, so reading about the commune type living was a welcome relief.
Try as I might, I couldn’t get past the present tense method of presenting the story. It didn’t, as it sometimes does, make the story more gripping. In fact, I felt, it made the characters seem self absorbed, even conceded. I don’t think that was the author’s intent. And then, at the end, it changed suddenly as we learned of Madge’s recent history. Once I was used to being in Madge’s mind I wished the story had included her more as she had a sort of toughness that Calla didn’t show.
As a maternal person, I was glad to see the attitudes of sex and protection, etc. Good things, I think, for young adults to read.
The sequel is still calling to me as I long to see what happens with everyone. I bet the author’s writing has improved. I look forward to seeing more.
Thank you for letting me read your book, Heidi Loney.
Hungry Ghost by Allison Moon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Allison Moon’s story-telling is the best! This is the sequel to Lunatic Fringe. Both books have satisfying endings,wondrous characters, plots, sub-plots, and writing. Her vocabulary wasn’t at third grade level, nor were the internal lessons of differing sexuality too much info-dumping. AND Allison Moon has ME reading a book about werewolves, and loving it!
I would have loved to be able to read a book like this as a teen. Back then this information was hushed. Nowadays teens might feel they already know this stuff about sexual identity. But even if you know this, the story holds its own.
One of the things I found most surprising was that I wished I could experience this level of being a were/shapeshifter. I felt like running through the forest and living in a tree-house, Ms. Moon made it all come alive. Characters breathed, puked, had periods, bathroom scenes. Real life! It is about time!
Thank you, Allison, for letting me read your books at a discount. Though the ending was satisfying, I hope there is a book three. I love the series!
Lunatic Fringe by Allison Moon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
What an exciting ride! I really wanted to get something done today besides reading. The story wouldn’t let up, it was so exciting! Except for the occasional oops that you might find in the best published works, I was in love with the writing of this book. The vocabulary was mature and didn’t assume that the audience would be third-graders. And descriptions that the author used were unique and beautiful.
Don’t let this book scare you away, should you not like the idea that it has lesbians or werewolves. Neither are overbearing or gruesome. And it is full of enlightenment for anyone who would pick it up. My goal this year was to read as many books as I could that had female author and a strong female main character. Okay, maybe the main character isn’t strong when we meet her, but the other females around her are, and she grows.
I already have book two, and can hardly wait to read it. I want to know what happens. Thank you, Allison Moon, for allowing me to read this at the discounted price. I look forward to reading your other books.
Neveah A Broken Forever by Angie Merriam
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I have to admit to vacillating between three and four stars. If it were on story alone it might rate five stars but there were so many things I had a hard time with. The beginning is way too romantic and gushing without my even caring about the couple. That goes on for SO many chapters. I would have liked to see Lilly and Shep separately grow into strong individuals of their own right before anything else happened. That didn’t happen much. The good part of the first few chapters was a feeling that editing had taken place.
Please remember, I do love the story and eventually almost all the characters. But there were so many holes in the plot. War? What war? Only strongest together but rarely together. Both seem to have the same talents, so how could they be stronger? And Who are you, Ms. author? George R.R. Martin? You have killed off some important characters here. (Just kidding.) Okay, I understand that you have a couple more books to follow this one, and I will read them to see what happened.
I got this book free from the author through Libboo for an honest review. And Libboo is a lot of the problems. I think it is their formatting that made the book lose all paragraphs and threw the reading process into the sewer. Interrupting the flow of story to hear the commercial was as bad as commercials on television. If you think that keeps the reader/watcher engaged you need to watch real people. We record things to avoid commercials. While reading something for Libboo I tend to go read an email while I waited (ADD, here) and by doing so I miss the first sentence or two of the next chapter. Often the commercial falls in such a way that I had to go back and reread the last couple lines of the story. Wouldn’t the commercial at the beginning and end of the book be sufficient to remind the reader where the book came from?
Again, I need to say, I did love the story. Yep, there’s another but… If you read like I do using text-to-speech, you find a lot more errors that by reading silently. Many words had spaces in them, such as, ‘s he’. I read along with the robot voice so I see the errors. But if I had been driving or been busy multitasking those would have led to misunderstandings much greater. I was a little worried about misspellings when in the acknowledgements the author thanked her editors for ‘thier’ help. I assumed that they didn’t get to read the acknowledgements before the book was published. From the middle out toward the end the errors increased as the story got more exciting.
Story is why I still haven’t downgraded the star rating. I couldn’t stop reading. And it will lead me to get book two to see what happens. Thank you for letting me read this fun book.
Betty’s (Little Basement) Garden by Laurel Dewey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Look, I like sci-fi and fantasy. This book was too real. On the other hand, it was fiction enough to keep my attention. There was a story and character development, plots within plots, and romance. And they all tied up well at the end of the book.
Meanwhile, something that I find irritating and almost earned it four stars was the information dumping. On second thought, I would have read none of that information anywhere else. And I might need it to guide my real life one of these days. Yes, I would read the book again. There is much to learn here and not just about cannabis.
I loved how the Betty grew stronger as the book progressed. I see a lot of fems that have been told to be quiet, be pretty, and remain in the kitchen– barefooted. Betty loves to cook so that part was no problem. She, also, learned to speak her mind, even when it was not what her peers wanted to hear.
As many of my friends know, I have fibromyalgia and it has me nearly bed-bound. The pain is horrendous and exhausting. I have gone through all that pharma wants to throw at me but nothing works and the side-effects are very dangerous. I must admit to wondering how cannabis might work for me. I am one of the few people who was a teen in the sixties that didn’t try drugs. So I have no way of knowing if it would work for me or not. But as I start to explore pain management with my doctor I am going to ask. My state is setting up dispensaries soon. That is why I ended up buying the Kindle version of the book,(it had been free from the author-for review). I may need it later to refresh my memory of what I may need.
I wish the book had a glossary or footnotes so one could look up the very research that had gone into the book. It seems extensive.
I believe in holistic healing. Herbs, teas, etc. help me a lot without side effects. Cannabis is just one more of Mother Earth’s healing plants. Let’s learn what we can and respect it for its properties.
Thank you Laurel Dewey for letting me read your wonderful novel.
Darswords 
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