Bernard Jan's Blog, page 13

Seduce Her with a Fist Book Review

Seduce her with a fist by Kristina Gallo

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


What is the right way to love? To follow your heart and face the music, whatever the tune it may be, or to follow someone else’s expectations and fall victim of the norms of society?

If you are a young woman and in the “right age” to find a husband, this decision is even harder to make. A young heart burning with flames of desire can easily cave under pressure and make a wrong choice. Instead of prince charming who will become her husband, intelligent girl Valentina chooses Petar, a local hooligan who manipulates his way into her heart. After he uses her and shares sex with her with no emotions and promises for any kind of future and love, Valentina must deal with harsh consequences of her naivety.

The story of Valentina and Petar is Kristina Gallo’s story of an unhappy love that happened in Croatia in 1999. When love hurts because love is denied despite the high price you are willing to pay for a glimpse of fake happiness.

BJ
www.bernardjan.com



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Bernard Jan

Reverie Girl Book Review

Reverie Girl by Nico J. Genes

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


If you have read Magnetic Reverie, the first book from The Reverie series, Reverie Girl is a must read for you. Lana, Claire and Glenn face the new challenges of love lost and found, of bad decisions and wrong moves. Despair and regret mixed with misery and blissful happiness culminate in the explosion of emotions you won’t be able to resist or stay neutral. Nothing is certain and anything is possible in a thin space between dreams and reality. And no sacrifices are too big or small when you fight for the only thing that matters to you—your true love.

Powerful and emotional love story between a young woman and the girl of her dreams which Nico J. Genes delivers to us with grace and tender care.

BJ
www.bernardjan.com



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Bernard Jan

Chasing Votes, Not Rainbows

My novella Look for Me Under the Rainbow about the killing of harp seal pups in Canada and the group of environmentalists and activists trying to save them is still competing in two contests.

It would be a great help if you could spread the word because you can only until October 26 vote for the semi-finals of the AUTHORSdb Cover Contest 2018 for Look for Me Under the Rainbow. This is why it needs as many as possible VOTES NOW.

In another TCK Publishing contest for the book of the year, Look for Me Under the Rainbow is on the second place in YA and Middle Grade category. It needs 48 votes to take the leading position! Do you think we can do it together? Can you help Danny become a leader in YA and Middle Grade category? If so, please, tell all your friends to move forward to the page 12 and cast their votes for Look for Me Under the Rainbow! Thanks!

BJ
www.bernardjan.com


Bernard Jan

Borderless Book Review

Borderless by Eliot Peper

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


More action. More suspense. More intrigue. More of everything in the second installment of the Analog Series, Borderless.

It’s all about the feed and the clash and wisdom of two women—Diana and Helen—who keep the present, future and the ultimate destiny of the world in the fist of their attacks and counterattacks.

Because,

The feed was the information infrastructure that empowered nearly every human activity and on which nearly every human activity relied. A talisman that lent mere mortals the power of demigods. Doctors used it for diagnosis. Brokers used it to place bets. Physicists used it to explore the mysteries of quantum entanglement. Farmers used it to grow food. Kindergarteners used it to learn the alphabet. The feed was power, water, transportation, communication, entertainment, public services, relationships, industry, media, government, security, finance, and education. Without it the churning torrent of human civilization would cease.

Praise to Eliot Peper, the author of Cumulus, True Blue, Neon Fever Dream, The Uncommon Series, Bandwidth, and now another near-future thriller Borderless, the second novel in the Analog Series.

If you haven’t read anything coming from Eliot Peper’s super brain, correct that now and grab any of his book. His writing is intelligent, seducing, enchanting, like multi-colored waterfall cascading over the central core of your brain.

Read this: You were the center of gravity in a dance that you were observing but not participating in. And read this: When you owned your own decisions, you owned your own sins. And this: The overall impression it left was of something designed but not engineered, a marriage of botanical growth and human imagination.

And then read the whole of Borderless, not skipping a single word because you don’t want to shatter the glass ball of magical writing in front of which we bow our heads pleased and humbled.

Overwhelmed with the beauty and the rich texture of his writing style, I need to say this one last thing (or maybe two). Many great authors are out there but there are not so many great authors who are true artists. Eliot Peper is one of them.

Whether you are just a reader, a budding or established writer or an author, read Eliot Peper. Read him slowly and with tender care. Enjoy the process and LEARN.

You don’t want to miss the taste of the near future and live it now in your imagination before it will become real in a few years or decades; you don’t want to be excluded from the privilege of knowing one of the best composers of the written word who walks, breaths, dreams and lives in the same feed as you do. That would be a shame.

Bernard Jan
www.bernardjan.com



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The Story of Danny at Discounted Price

My book Look for Me Under the Rainbow is in Kindle promotion days! Here are the scheduled dates for discounted prices in Kindle Countdown Deal:

1 September 16, 2018 at 8:00 AM (PDT) 80h $0.99 67%

2 September 19, 2018 at 4:00 PM (PDT) 80h $1.99 34%

End September 23, 2018 at 12:00 AM (PDT) Original list price $2.99

Grab your ebook, if you don’t have it yet, and tell your friends who would love to get it at discounted price. Now is the time to do that and let them know!

Erwin’s eyes refocused on the present. “Helen, the boy in this legend was the first Rain-bow Warrior to walk this planet. We were named after him.”
She watched him bleary-eyed, mindless of where she was or the cup of coffee she held in the grip of her fingers that turned blue.
Then she wistfully smiled at him and said, “I think the legend about Rainbow Warriors is a bit different, but thank you anyway.”
“There are legends and legends, Helen, and this one’s mine. It can be yours too if you want. As long as Rainbow Warriors—no matter from which story, fable or legend—live among us, there is hope for this world. And even for this poor thing we came too late to save. If we believe there’s a rainbow, maybe his death wasn’t as terrible as it looks to us now, or in vain.”

Thank you for caring about animals and saving our planet!

BJ
www.bernardjan.com

Bernard Jan

Father Figure Book Review

Father Figure by James J. Cudney

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I can understand but cannot fully grasp the intensity of need, desire and obsession to find the identity of biological parents because I was lucky enough to have them both. I guess it is something primal, something that runs in our blood and doesn’t leave us at peace until we know.

That restless need, disturbance in our consciousness and ability to identify ourselves are beautifully described in the novel Father Figure by James J. Cudney. A story of two young women living twenty years apart, one desperately trying to hide and forget her past, the other one eager to find the answers to her origins and sexuality.

Father Figure is a modern story of love, hatred, romance, monstrosity, family issues, sexual challenges, doubts, failures, sadness, redemption, forgiveness, acceptance and coming to peace with ourselves. The story I thought would read in a straight line of logical events surprised me with an unexpected number of twists and turns and smartly delivered booby traps-cliffhangers. Marvelous is how the author made me loath one protagonist in the story!

I am always happy when I discover a new book or author worthy of my time, attention and love. James J. Cudney and his Father Figure are among them, the latest additions to my private hall of fame and darlings.

BJ
www.bernardjan.com

Bernard Jan



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Your Votes and My Smiles

Don’t believe an author who tells you they don’t like their books. It’s a pure lie. If we didn’t like the books we wrote, we wouldn’t publish them and share them with you! That is the real truth.

Since we already did that—wrote them, invest a bigger or smaller amount of time, money and enthusiasm to publish them and bring the final product in front of you to enjoy, love or hate it (heaven forbid the last one happens!)—we also hope and count on your support and kindness to help our books reach others and continue their life through your purchased copies, word-of-mouth recommendations, honest reviews or votes in various contests.

As it was the case with my first novella A World Without Color, I have also entered my second novella Look for Me Under the Rainbow to a few contests. This moving story of the adorable seal pup Danny and the Rainbow Warriors activist Helen who is trying to save him from the plight caused by greedy humans already went through two contests.

In The Book Designer’s e-Book Cover Design Contest for April it was reviewed by the guest judge Kit Foster, an award-winning graphic designer who specializes in book cover design. He has designed the covers for over 1500 published works for publishers worldwide, including Pulitzer Prize winners, several New York Times best-selling authors, and countless Amazon bestsellers.

This is his comment for my book cover designed by Mario Kožar MKM Media: “I like the imagery in this one, The adorable seal pup, the crisp white snow, which beautifully contrasts the figure in red and the rainbow above. I think the text, however, could be a lot stronger. The title font, especially, could do to be re-thought. This is a tricky one, since the title contains six words, all of different lengths – it’s a lot to fit in and maintain a balanced design. I’m unsure what the reason for making the word ‘Me’ a different size to the rest of the words on the same line was, too.” Not a bad comment at all, coming from such a reputable graphic designer. I am pleased!

In the second book cover contest to which I submitted, Look for Me Under the Rainbow entered the finals of AllAuthor cover contest for May and it ended up ranked #6! This is a good result considering that due to the error the book entered the contest with one day and 140 votes delay!

This contest is over for my story of Danny and we cannot do anything about it anymore. But my book is running and competing in two other contests and I hope and wish for your votes there.

Look for Me Under the Rainbow has been approved in YA and Middle-Grade Book Category of the TCK Publishing 2018 Reader’s Choice Awards so please follow this link and browse to page 12 where you can cast your vote for it in this book of the year contest! If you have read my book and loved it, please don’t forget to vote for it.

You can also vote in AUTHORSdb: Author Database, Books and Top Charts Cover Contest 2018 for the cover of the year in Literary / Young Adult category. I hope you like my book cover enough to click here and cast your precious vote for it!

Book and book cover contests are fun and often excited, and it is not the end of the world if your book doesn’t win. Only one book per category wins and sometimes it is a question of good marketing and promotion and a bit of luck to win the title. What counts is sharing this experience with other books, authors and readers who vote for their favorites and the extra exposure your book gets while taking part in such contests. That exposure will help it find a way to another grateful reader and fan who will appreciate the power of your imagination and writing skills enough to share it with others who will bring a smile to your face and love it too.

Thank you for reading this and thank you for your votes!

BJ
www.bernardjan.com


Bernard Jan

Simon and Simon

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Holding one Simon in your hand and watching another fixated on the big screen. Can it be any better than that?

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli is everything a young adult coming-out novel should be. Adorable, engaging, entertaining, real. It’s a real story (don’t confuse it with a true story) of young Simon who leads two lives: a real-time life in which Simon keeps his huge secret from his family, his friends, and everyone in school until he is blackmailed and his secret is threatened to be revealed; and his virtual life in which, under his alias Jacques, he emails with a teenage gay boy hidden under the pen name Blue. In his online life with Blue everything is easier for Simon, even to come out to him, a stranger.

If anything of that sounds familiar to you, you will with no difficulty relate with Simon and Blue as they confide in each other and develop their flirtatious relationship into a sweet addiction when Simon can no longer get Blue out of his head and starts looking for him among his high-school friends determined to meet him.

I took a reversed order of watching the movie Love, Simon before reading the book, so I didn’t have the usual fears of the movie butchering the book (as it is too often the case) but rather something extraordinary happened. Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger wrote such a great screenplay and Nick Robinson and the rest of the cast gave amazing performances, so the story of Simon and his friends was screened into a bit different and special experience! Some of the scenes are rewritten and made more dynamic, some characters altered and turned more charismatic, while the highlight of Simon’s secret about to be revealed and Simon being forced to face his big coming out is portrayed with more passion, excitement and movie drama.

The “motion picture” Simon is a fantastic addition to the “literary” Simon! Each of them gives us their perspective of how difficult it is for a young boy to accept his true feelings and sexuality and tell others about it. Maybe to understand why it is so hard we shouldn’t look in someone’s (in)ability to admit the truth to themselves and others but rather in a society which makes such a big deal out of it and makes it so hard.

Both Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda and Love, Simon offer us an excellent insight of the young Simon’s inner turmoil, coming out drama and restrained feelings. They will make us appreciate his struggle and determination to find his love with tears, passion and outburst of our own emotions.

Bernard Jan
www.bernardjan.com

Bernard Jan



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Pride: A Book Review

Pride by Jonathan Hill

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


What do you remember most from your first Pride? Are you still making plans for your first Pride? Or you think it is all just a bunch of crap wrapped up in the glittering human rights propaganda?

To teenage boy Liam his first Gay Pride march is everything. Not even traveling by himself to another town and lying to his parents can prevent him to attend it. Because Liam reached the point when he accepted himself for who he was and now he seeks the acceptance of others too.

But is he ready to accept the dire consequences of his actions and coming out to another teenage boy, a stranger to him? Can he embrace the pain and guilt of a caterpillar spreading its rainbow-colored wings as a new butterfly?

Tender is the way and splashed with the right dose of humor with which Jonathan Hill makes us to befriend and love the characters in his novella Pride. It’s a brutally honest and beautifully realistic story which begs for your attention. In other words, a must-read!

Bernard Jan
www.bernardjan.com

Bernard Jan



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How to Publish and Save Your Money: A Book Review

Naked News for Indie Authors How NOT to Invest Your Marketing $$$ by Gisela Hausmann

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


So, you are crazy enough to write, publish and market your books by yourself? You think you can do it as good as some major, or at least smaller, publishers do? Tsk! Don't be crazy!

Because you actually can!

It depends on how willing you are to roll up your sleeves and get “business dirty” (and here I don't mean cheating, stealing and being dishonest and corrupted, but lots of investigating, investing and hard work), whether you are afraid or willing to stand in front of the camera and how firm your abs are when you get hit by rejection or ignoring (not only once but in a series of punches).

I read the book that can help you toughen up and avoid the traps of (self) publishing and losing your hard-earned money. Naked News for Indie Authors How NOT to Invest Your Marketing $$$ by self-publishing industry veteran, marketing expert, email evangelist and top reviewer Gisela Hausmann may be just what you are looking for.

If you are ready to go into your new indie career and don't have second thoughts about returning to traditional publishing after weighing the pros and cons, pay attention to a few important things. Writing the book is just the tip of an iceberg, an easy part. Because you are talented enough or just know the drill and can pull it out with good editing. But then comes the real challenge.

You also need to develop your marketing strategy and skills to reach as many readers as possible, get your first (and hopefully many more) reviews and turn your face and name into a brand that will help you with a successful launch and life of your books.

This book will give you practical advice on how to achieve that without wasting your time, energy and money. It's an easy read but don't be mistaken: success doesn't come overnight. There is a long way and lots of climbing to reach the stars. Many others have been there so why wouldn't you do it too?

If you find this book useful, you can also check NAKED TRUTHS About Getting Book Reviews 2018 by Gisela Hausmann. You can read my review here.

BJ
www.bernardjan.com

Bernard Jan



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