Sandra C. Lopez's Blog, page 248

Review: DEATH ON SOCIAL MEDIA by Nancy McGovern (Book 10)

 

A girl that’s disappeared from social media. Was she missing? Or worse?

Another easy and interesting mystery, although there was no death in it so the title was a bit misleading. But still good.

 

My rating: 4 stars

Blog Tour: NOW I SEE YOU by Shannon Work

 

Now I See YouMountain Resort Mystery Series Book 1by Shannon WorkGenre: Mystery
Two murders. A terrified mountain resort. Can a daring reporter help stop an avalanche of dead bodies?Celebrity TV anchor Georgia Glass wants out of Denver and far away from her obsessed fan. Set to host her own investigative crime show in LA, she’s surprised to inherit a Victorian house in Aspen from a mysterious uncle she never knew. But while exploring the gothic property, she discovers the frozen corpse of a missing heiress.Georgia’s journalist instincts kick in and she is determined to help police track down the killer. But by investigating the murder, has she made herself the killer’s next target?Can Georgia help solve the case before she becomes the next victim? Or will the stalker that followed her to Aspen get her first?Now I See You is a fast-paced whodunit set amidst the spectacular scenery of Aspen, Colorado, and the first book in the suspenseful Mountain Resort Mystery series.

Goodreads* Amazon
My review: Reporter Georgia was heading to Aspen to inherit her uncle’s house with a nagging fear that her stalker was still out there. Then she finds a body in her backyard. Could a serial killer be on the loose?

Story had nice descriptions of the snowy mountains, landscapes, and architecture. It’s a bit slow, often lagging with lengthy prose and too many characters. Well-written overall, but just not as exciting as I thought.

A decent mystery.

 

My rating: 3 stars

Shannon Work grew up in Del Rio, a border town in the dusty wilds of West Texas. When she graduated from high school, she moved east to College Station and graduated from Texas A&M University with a bachelor's degree in Journalism and a master's degree in Land Economics and Real Estate.Most of her working life has been spent developing real estate, earning a national Best in America Living Award for one of her developments. After two failed starts at writing a novel while raising three kids and working, she retired to pursue her dream of writing mystery novels full time.Shannon and her husband are recent empty nesters and split their time between Houston, Texas and Telluride, Colorado. Always with their laptops and dogs in tow.
Website* Facebook * Twitter * Instagram* Bookbub* Amazon * Goodreads

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Review: SHADYTOWN by Mike Sherer

 

Sean is a young boy with a mission to protect his town from evil, according to the ghost of his grandma. Each section of the story is written like a short story, rendering it like a scary tell you’d tell to kids around a camp fire. It all started with a big yellow box and its eerie contents. A trip to a pumpkin patch turns monstrous. Some weird things happen in Shadytown. Follow a young boy as he and his friends battle evil forces.

Great, little tales that culminate into one interesting story!

 

My rating: 4 stars

Review: BITS AND BITES: TALES FROM A TWISTED MIND by Michael Vassel

 In this collection of short stories, we have a dog’s tale, an alien finding a human skull, a man recounting his killing spree from inside the prison walls, and Satan having a heart-to-heart with his son.

The writing was quirky and odd, but well done. Stories are a land of vagueness led by a path of peculiarity. It’s not entirely clear until you reach the end. Some stories had an interesting angle that certainly piqued your interest. Definitely unique.

 

My rating: 3 stars

Review: ACCIDENTAL LEIGH by Melanie James

Leigh was a hardworking teacher with a non-existent love life; therefore, she was a smart reader, often indulging in steamy romance books. She would rather masturbate at home to one of her fictional characters than go out with Carl. Who wouldn’t?
After the sudden death of one of her favorite characters, Leigh goes through a mourning period, then vows to finally write her own steamy paranormal romance. She gets this weird, old desk from this strange, mean lady, and then she writes her fist steamy sex scene. The next day, she finds out that her parents had reenacted the same exact scene. Whatever she wrote came true? She wrote a paranormal romance starring her parents. Oy!
Not only did she have to imagine her parents in kinky sex, but she had to stop the story before the 3 alpha wolves banged her mom in group love.
I liked how this started with this magical writing desk. Leigh is a vibrant and witty character, but she tends to yammer too much sometimes. Also, the writing gets too indulgent in sexual and genitalia references. These things can be funny sometimes, but enough was enough already.
This was an okay read.
My rating: 3 stars

Review: THE MAGICAL CURIOUSITY SHOPPE by Ani Gonzalez

This is a collection of shorts, each correlating with a witch and a holiday. We have “The Halloween Mask,” “Christmas Doll,” and “Love Potion.”  
These stories were okay to read. They had a lot of hocus pocus jargon and sometimes the story line wasn’t too clear. I liked the concept though.
My rating: 3 stars

Review: EVERYTHING IS FINE NOW by Steve Rasnic Tem

A dreadful, old house. A mystery behind a dead-beat dad. A boy’s body has a mind of its own.


These are quick stories with a dark twist. The writing was simple and unadorned. Nothing fancy about them, but still entertaining and good for a quickie read.


My rating: 3 stars

Review: BLOOD, BATH, AND BEYOND by Michelle Rowen

Sarah Dearly is a vampire and invisible to humans (not literally.) A snarky b#@ch, she can walk in daylight relaying phrases like, “Bite me…or I might just bite you.” All in all, she had a natural born talent to rub people the wrong way. She was the immortal pessimist with a fear for flying. With this, I kind of liked her.
We find out that her and her fiancé have to fly to Las Vegas to look into a string of vampire-related murders (bodies with puncture marks on the neck.) Okay, that sounded interesting. But then the real case was catching a vampire posing as a toddler contestant in a beauty pageant. Wait, what? Why? What about the murders.
I thought I’d wait to see how this story would develop (and hopefully get back to the murders,) but I just couldn’t stand Sarah’s incessant babbling. There was also too many vampire politics. Why were we even at the stupid pageant?
This was a disappointment.
My rating: 2 stars

Review: SEEING GHOSTS by Bria Davenport

 

The cover: A creepy girl with blood coming out of her eyes. Just plain nasty!

The story: not much better.

Jo is a recovering alcoholic who moves into a boarding house full of dull weirdoes. Easy narrative, slow read, not very interesting.

 

My rating: 1 star

Review: GHOUL TOWN by Anthony Blankenship

 

The cover was mediocre and dull; it could’ve been better to draw in more audiences.

It had a very slow start. So, basically, you have a 14-year old kid talking about his boring town and having to live in this boring town. Yeah, I get it—it’s boring!

Finally, he talks about going to a haunted house. The kid just doesn’t stop talking!

It’s not like the Goosebumps books. Those were interesting and fun. This is too boring!

 

My rating: 2 stars