Welcome to my Monday Minis.
For today I’ll be reviewing two books.
Up first:
At Least He’s Not On Fire
by Chris Philbrook
My Review
Inside these pages you’ll get some short stories and samples from some of the author’s books. This I particularly liked, because I got a feel for the writing and met some of the characters. And I also got a hint about the stories. Great tease by the author and he hooked me.
All In is wicked fun.
Do you think you can bluff the devil? Do you have a better poker face?
Wally’s about to find out.
Wally isn’t lucky. He’s just lost everything at the gaming tables. He sends out an invitation and the devil answers.
Now it’s poker with Nick and the stakes are high. And the devil’s in the details.
I could see the end coming but the author took me around the bend, giving me hope for Wally. The twist was all to his advantage, but I remembered Wally is greedy. That’s why he’s broke
**
Hell Hole
The sink hole was bad. Really bad. Sucking everything down into the collapsing Earth. But that’s not all you have to worry about. It’s what’s stirring down there in the deep abyss that you should really be worrying about.
Some people just never learn and we all pay the price.
When soldiers discover a temple in the jungle, why don’t they listen to the native’s warnings. With evidence showing what will happen, why would anyone open that hole?
Big hole, superstition, folklore, add fools, stir. Recipe for disaster.
Well, if someone didn’t we wouldn’t have this fun, creepy story. I love stories with creatures in them. The author gave me some really good ones and , from watching copious horror movies, It was easy to visualize the scenery and the monsters. I even put some actors faces to the characters.
**
The Vampire of Menlo Park
Very interesting premise. Imagine Thomas Edison was a vampire.
This was fun.
Poor Geoffrey had no idea what he was getting into when he went to work for Mr. Edison.
He did know he was uneasy. Why did Edison never come out in daylight? Why were the previous interns never seen again? Why did he feel unsettled around Edison?
The fun begins when Geoffrey gets the answers to his questions.
The author threw me a curve ball with his ending. Honestly didn’t see it coming and that’s something I really enjoyed.
**
I’m especially interested in Tesser: A Dragon Among Us.
The story is partly told from Tesser’s(the dragon) POV and he’s just awakened from a very long sleep to find he’s living under Boston. Mankind now rules Earth and he’s entering a world that no longer believes in dragon.
I liked how the plot was set up and ‘flew’ through this sample.
This I’ll be reading ASAP!
**
Then there are samplings from Dark Recollections and Wrath of the Orphans. I’m a huge fan of zombie and undead stories so these will be added to my summer reading list. When the undead attack the fighting and the group dynamics become the focal points and this is where these type of stories really shine for me.
From Adrian’s journal in Dark Recollections:
“State and local agencies are reporting widespread attacks on citizens across the region. authorities are advising people to stay inside, lock their doors, bar their windows and only open doors for known friends and family who respond intelligently”
Figures they wouldn’t say the words, “beware of zombies.”
From Wrath of the Orphans:
Twins Malwynn and Umaryn might have been good once.
Now they’ve sworn an oath and now they’ll have their pound of flesh.
I was pulled right into this one.
The world of Elmoryn is fascinating and there are many characters to love and hate.
The beginning is a bit slow as the author builds his world. I didn’t mind this as I wanted to get a real feel for the story.
Once the world is revealed and the plot begins, it’s a rush of action and vengeance. This is a very dark story indeed.
Loving character driven stories, I quickly became fond of Malwynn and Umaryn. I felt for their loss, raged alongside them and understood the actions they took.
This could become an epic fantasy.
I enjoyed all of these. While trying not to play favorites, I’ll add that I am partial to dragons.
If you’re looking for some new adventures and enjoy a few quick reads to entertain you, I’d highly recommend you try this collection. There’s something for everyone.
4 Stars
~~
Synopsis
Beheading a zombie isn’t easy in a world where you’re more afraid of the living than the dead.
Adrian Ring’s simple life is thrown into chaos when the world is ripped apart by a plague of undead and legions of desperate survivors. Retreating to Auburn Lake Preparatory Academy, Adrian attempts to rescue friends and family on the way while dancing around his impending insanity over who and what he left behind, and evading maniac survivors. He saves his cat Otis, but shoots his mom. Pretty successful, all things considered.
Dark Recollections is the first part of Adrian’s own story of how he survived after “That Day.” Told through his eyes as he talks to his laptop, affectionately named ‘Mr. Journal,” and through short stories that entwine with his tales that bring forth dark visions of a world being eaten alive by an unimaginable evil. Adrian’s Undead Diary is an eight part epic about a solitary, guilt stricken man that didn’t think he deserved to live, but realizes very soon that he survived, and suffered for a reason.
The Wrath of the Orphans: Book One of The Kinless Trilogy
Malwynn and his twin sister Umaryn live in a small town in northern Varrland. In idyllic New Picknell nearly nothing happens, and when their day to day routine is interrupted by a skirmish between an invading patrol of the dead from The Amaranth Empire and a defending force from Varrland, their world begins to come undone.
With international war looming on the horizon New Picknell becomes the center of quite unwanted attention, and the twins have their world shattered. With nothing left to lose, they set out on a mission of vengeance that will take them to places they’d never dreamed of visiting, discovering mystical powers in The Way that will change their lives forever, and revealing dark knowledges best left undiscovered.
Tesser: A Dragon Among Us A Novel of the Reemergence
Imagine for a moment that you are a Dragon. A creature of unimaginable power, unending intelligence and strength, and you’ve just woken from ten thousand years of slumber. Worse yet, you’ve awoken underneath a city; Boston, an alien and strange place that defies everything you’ve ever known.
Your last memories were of primordial forests, erupting volcanoes sculpting a developing world, faeries, witches, vampires, krakens, and monsters that feared where you turned your eyes.
But all that is gone. Humans, only barely coming into their own in the world from your memory, have taken over. They have erected cities made of stone and steel erupting from the earth like stalagmites reaching for the high blue sky, and developed sciences that have overshadowed even the glory of old magic.
This was not the way it was supposed to be.
Meet Tesser, the Dragon. He who walks in any form, and flies the skies free of fear.
A Dragon Among Us is Tesser’s story. Walk with him as he learns the human way, and discovers the dark truth about why magic has really faded from the world he calls home.
And just maybe, humanity will remember why dragons were most noble, and most savage creatures again.
Welcome to The Reemergence.
~~~~
And now for:
Never Sleep Again
by Steven and Ruth Watson-Morris
MY REVIEW
DEATH
“Maureen had a secret. Not only was she an odd sort of girl, she saw dead people and animals.
Sunday night she would sit in her flat, invite people that would never come, then play quietly on the Ouija board on her own. Nothing ever came of it, until one night the board spelled out, ‘knock, knock.”
I felt for Maureen. She’s lonely, with no friends after moving to a new city. I could see why she might anser the board.
Myself, I won’t have one in my house, let alone dare to play with it. I have a healthy fear of what I cannot see.
A very quick read with a fun ending.
THE THIEF
Lucy is quite good in her role as a thief. Afterall, she was trained by the best.
I don’t know if I’d chosen an abandoned, haunted mansion as a place to hide my stolen bootie though.
When I read that Lucy hadn’t seen any ghosts, I knew she soon would.
After a friend turned her in, Lucy rushes to the mansion, and finds all her stolen goods gone. They do reappear, just not how she imagined.
This was a very short story. I liked Lucy and wished it were longer.
THE OLD CURIOUSITY SHOP
I would love to read a full length novel about this one.
Imagine a strange shop of curiosities. The doors open at midnight and people dressed in black hoods came and went. That was my first pique of curiosity.
When it’s rumored the shopkeeper has died, poor seventeen year old funeral assistant, Fred, sees his chance to get a peek inside the shop.
I knew Fred shouldn’t have stepped over that threshold. What happens is no big surprise. I did like the reason the author gave for why Fred couldn’t leave.
Just goes to show, you can’t ever really know anyone, including your own family.
THE BOOGEYMAN
Before Harold died, he was a schoolmaster. He tried real hard to get the children to learn.
After his death, he wandered the halls of Warwick Castle, remaining hidden. But he grows tired of this, and believing no one can see him, he starts to wander among the tourists. It’s not long before he’s spotted.
This was a fun story and I liked reading how a mild man became the Boogeyman.
It really got interesting when Harold had his picture taken and is one of my favorites in this collection.
While I’d love to tell you something about all 13 of these stories, it would make for a very long review.
I’d recommend you get your copy, turn out all the lights but one for reading, hug a pillow, and enjoy these scary good stories.
4 Stars
~~~
Synopsis
Novella of short stories that your nightmares are made of, hauntings, murders, witchcraft all packed into one little book! But beware you may never sleep again!
When the moon has entered its second phase,
and ghosts and ghouls come out to play.
Where is the man who hides under your bed?
He’s hiding under the stairs instead!
This book is for those who like to read short to the point stories, there is a collection of 13 in this small book.
Enjoy!
~~~~
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