Sandra C. Lopez's Blog, page 276

Review: WALKING THE CRIMSON ROAD by Perrie Patterson

Image Graphic designed by Sandra Lopez

Ever felt like you worked hard for something while everyone else was out having fun?

Nineteen-year-old college sophomore, Rebecca Brant has deemed this the year of the "yes," and tosses her old straight-A, straight-laces ways and inhibitions to the curb. She worked hard for a full scholarship, rushed a sorority and made the dance team her freshman year. Now, she's moving into her sorority with her bestie Bella and feels the year will be stellar.

On the first day, she trips over a gorgeous guy in class named Lane and can't get him out of her mind. After being set up for the first season social with Grant, a hot swim team member, Bex is torn and struggles to choose between these two incredible guys. Should she go with sexy, sweet and uncomplicated or gorgeous, sophisticated and mysterious?

Things get harder when she lies to her parents about her whereabouts over spring break and takes off with the boy she's in love with. While there she stumbles upon a secret he's kept from her which rocks her world. Will she be able to trust him again? Was he really her first true love? Will she come clean and tell her parents the truth?

During Bex's journey she finds love, discovers a lot about herself, and realizes the importance of honesty, trust and the value of family and friends.

Available on Amazon




My review: Rebecca (A.K.A. “Bex”) was a college sophomore with dreams of one day becoming a journalist. With officially being in a sorority, this was going to be a “stellar” year—the year of the “yes.”
Rachel was the “it” girl package without the sass and drama—the “girl next door” type.
Story was easy to read with a simple flow. At first, the story seemed mundane with its cheery banalities, but it held promise. It basically relayed the typical college sorority life with academics, friends, and social outings. The pace was leisurely, not quite progressive. It’s mostly Bex hanging and talking with her friends. For it being a “yes” year, not much happens or maybe it just doesn’t happen fast enough.
The cover was quite generic. It was just that—a crimson road from top to bottom. And that’s fine as that was the title, but there just wasn’t much more to it than that. I think it would’ve benefited with a nicer design—something that illustrated what this story was about.
Ultimately, it’s the story of a bright, young girl’s collegiate experience with love, friendships, and her future. I like how simple and upbeat Bex was, and the diary format allowed us to see what she was feeling.
It’s a pretty good read.
My rating: 3 stars




Excerpt




Bella and I are both from the South and are used to the late August heat. It’s easy to spot kids who aren’t southerners by what they wear those first few weeks of school. We point out a few as we’re walking and laugh about their probably being from Michigan or Washington State or somewhere. I love our game of where’s that look from. We made it up last year when we spent so much time together during recruitment week.


Bella’s from Louisiana, near New Orleans, a city called Covington. I remember she said it was the same town where that hot actor from The Vampire Diaries is from.


I look over at Bella. “I’m going to Palmer, for math, but I’ve got almost twenty minutes before it starts.”


“I have two more classes near Bidgood after my marketing class ends. Maybe I’ll see you before I go to band practice,” she says as she turns to dart up the stairs into Bidgood Hall.


“Don’t forget we’re going dress shopping after class tomorrow with Lexi, and Cat,” she shouts back at me before disappearing into the building.


“Okay, bye!” I yell back and continue on my way to the other side of campus. Even though the late August sun is beating down, it’s a beautiful day that shows off the ancient oak trees, thick green grass of the quad, and ivy growing up the sides of the stately brick architecture. As I make my way near Ferguson Plaza, I can see people walking in and out of the center fountains that spray up from the pavement. It would be nice to walk through them, but I don’t want to be late, so I make a right turn and head for the math building.


Math is as dull as can be, and no one smells remotely amazing. Afterward I go back to Phi Mu to gather my things for dance team practice and maybe squeeze in a nap. The room is empty and quiet when I walk in, perfect for a catnap. As I start to snuggle down, my phone dings a text. I look to see who it is— just Mom checking on my first day. I quickly text back, Great, but gotta go to practice. I set a thirty-minute alarm for my nap and drift off to sleep. When my alarm buzzes me awake, I shake off the grogginess. I grab an energy drink from the fridge, throw my bag over my shoulder, and open the door as Bella barrels in.


“Hey, Bex, how was your first day?”


“Cool. I think pretty close to perfect. How about you?”


“Same. Can’t complain. Anything new?” she asks, opening the closet to get out her trumpet for band practice.


“Yeah, I have to tell you about this guy I met in my creative writing class, but I’m going to be late for dance if I don’t hurry.”


“Sure. See ya, Bex. Have a great one. We’ll catch up on all the details tonight.”


“Definitely.” I scoot out the door. Thinking about new guy from my journalism class, makes me smile and creates a lightness to my step. I bounce onto the sidewalk and decide to vlog about my day as I make my way over to dance team practice. I’ll title this vlog “What to do when you trip over a hot guy in class.” 

Review: THE VINE CROSS by S.P. Dawes

Image Graphic designed by Sandra Lopez

Hayley is a girl with her whole life ahead of her, after running away she decides to start living her life, but going to a house party, brings about more problems than she ever envisioned. Taking the help offered she gets out, only to fall for a guy who could be the catalyst to her down fall. Slowly as their relationship blossoms, the world around her darkens, bringing with it fears from her past, but can she keep her secrets or must her relationship come first and which one presents the most danger, when Jesse finally starts piecing things together though, it is her that must go back, to protect the people she loves, but can Jesse protect her, and at what cost?

Available on Amazon
















 ~~~

My review: Hayley really wanted to be a chef, so she gets a job in a restaurant.

The whole thing had a slow start with the interview and branching out into the odds-and-ends of the new job. It was pretty mundane. The writing was okay, but the story was fairly ambiguous. The characters didn’t really reveal much about what was going on, which I guess supported the whole “mystery” theme.

In the interim, Haley was trying to hide from “him.” Who’s “him?” There also seems to be a hunt for a killer or a kidnapper, which resurfaces that air of mystery to the story. Unfortunately, there was such lag that it was hard to be captivated by it. Isn’t something supposed to happen?
There were just a few too many holes in the story for it to make any sense. Overall, this wasn’t what I expected and I couldn’t get into it.
My rating: 2 stars

Review: HAMARTIA by Ben Hoene

Image Graphic designed by Sandra Lopez

Natasha Cole was a sweet thirteen-year-old girl. She grew up in a fatherless home in the ghetto of Clever Rock; the murder capital of the country. Despite her bleak upbringing, she was a light in darkness with her uplifting and whimsical personality. All of that changed when she fell victim to rape. She was forced under the threat of death by her rapist to never tell a soul what he did...Thirty years have passed since that incident. Natasha is now a mentally ill drug addict in her forties. After thirty years of silence, she reveals the identity of her rapist. Almost immediately after this confession, a mysterious stalker murderously pursues her. Who’s after her? Natasha must maintain what little sanity she has left to solve this mystery and stop the attacker; while trying to stop her own demons in the process.

Available on Amazon




My review: The city of Clever Rock had the highest crime rate and it was rotting away with dirty politicians, drug trafficking, and gang violence. Only two words describes the city: Stay Out.
Natasha Cole was a bright and cheery girl only to have her world crash and burn when she was raped at 13. After that torture and humiliating ordeal, she just shut down. Then she became pregnant and miscarried.
30 years later, Natasha struggled with depression, anxiety, self-hate, and self-harm. A recovering drug addict, she finally revealed the name of her rapist (she never said anything because he said he’d kill her if she did.) Suddenly, Natasha gets the feeling that she’s being watched by some dark figure. She thinks it’s Nick, her rapist. As she loses more people in her life, Natasha sinks further into her mental abyss.
Soon, it is revealed that a killer is after her. The one who’s after Natasha will blow your mind.
I think this was a good story. You empathize with the character and her inner-demons. Her story is simple and easy to get into. An eerie tale.
It had an interesting title—Hamartia. But I wondered what it meant and how it correlated with the story. The cover was pretty good.
My rating: 4 stars



Excerpt:


Natasha has remained on that couch for nearly two weeks; cutting herself off from the rest of the world. The duration of it consisted of watching old movies on the retro film channel. One film in particular that sent her deeper into despair was a prodigal son story about a lost child returning to their parents after a long period of decadence and obscurity created by a family rivalry. She’s forgotten the name of the movie.
This evening, she sleeps on the couch in the dark living room as the artificial lighting of the TV shines a blue colored spotlight in her vicinity. A late-night sitcom re-run is playing. Natasha is oblivious that her front door just opened. A few moments pass. A shadow of an arm slowly appears on the wall Natasha’s couch is leaning against. The arm extends out toward Natasha with a mixture of compassion and yearning. The shadow takes the shape of a person and at the end of the other arm, a knife is poised to strike. The shadow moves closer.Natasha opens her eyes and glances at the TV for a split second. An actor in the show looks into the camera, as if looking into the living room. The actor chuckles. “Natasha. Turn around and look up.”Natasha's eyes widen. She turns and looks up. She screams in horror as she sees the masked killer standing over her; intending to stab her with the knife. For a single moment, Natasha observes the intruder. He is tall and lanky; but still muscular. Dressed in all black. His mask is black with blank, white ovals stitched to the eye area. It has fringes on the bottom that drape down to his chest. It has long flaps on the sides that drape down to his shoulders; bearing a resemblance to classic executioner masks from Medieval times. He is wearing black surgical gloves; and black surgical covers over his shoes.Natasha quickly rolls off the couch before the knife strikes. The cushion explodes with flying cotton. She frantically crawls and then musters up the ability to stand and run. She races out of the house, screaming.She runs to her car. The tires are all slashed. The killer storms out of the house. Natasha screams and sprints out into the deserted street.The killer chases after her, some ways behind. Natasha runs frantically away. She’d never ran so fast in her life—so full of adrenaline, she doesn’t know her body is almost completely out of oxygen. She is breathing so heavy and inhaling so much air, her throat feels like it’s swallowing razor blades. She is so scared, that it feels as if she has left her own body and is watching herself run; it’s a psychological phenomenon called depersonalization. The killer is still chasing from behind at a distance. He’s closing in on her. He’s very fast. Natasha yells out into the open. “Help me! Somebody help me!” Something as horrible as this is a rather common occurrence in the late hours of Clever Rock. The locals have witnessed drive-by shootings, drug deals gone wrong, fights, and gang wars. Many spectators and witnesses have been killed in the process. A woman screaming for her life is nothing extraordinary.

Review: MAGIC AND MONSTERS by John R. Python Jr.

In this collection of short fantasy fiction, a man is trapped in a closet, hiding from his wife, who’s supposed to be dead. Unfortunately, she was there to get revenge. Hell hath no fury…


A powerful witch uses her feminine wiles to seduce a soldier to override the prince’s ban of magic. After all, “women were agents of The Dark One.” (LOC 662) A debate of good magic vs. bad.


A box may hold the answer to a woman’s wish to punish her philandering husband. A good read with an irony twist!


Stories were pretty good.


My rating: 4 stars

Review: INCANTATION by Linda Bolton

Tristen Bane is a famous magician whose dream was to best the legendary Houdini in death-defying acts. For Tristen, magic was life; for Christina, journalism was. When she is assigned to do a story on the magician, she falls under his spell--like, literally does, it seems with weak knees, shortness of breath, and all. Why was she feeling this way? Did Tristen really have satanic powers? Apparently, he's an expert hypnotists. I always wondered if that was real.
Story was interesting at first, until I realized Tristen's possessiveness and bad tempter. He was also a psycho for mutilating his audience. Who uses dead bodies and cuts people's heads?
Overall, this was a quick read with an okay story. It was mainly about how connected yet disconnected two people can be. Personally, they didn't make a good pair. I certainly wouldn't go for Tristen. Supposedly, this was "a tale of the magic of unconventional love."
My rating: 2 stars

Review: GOOD GIRL GONE by Sam Berretti

Image Graphic designed by Sandra Lopez

Someone will have the Devil to pay.
Doris Watson is an engineer by profession, a designer of kitchen appliances. But when she gets an emergency late night message, her mundane existence takes a decided turn into the bizarre and deadly realm of human trafficking as her secret existence resurfaces. She is an on-call agent for a firm named Seekers Worldwide, a front for a loose group of high-tech mercenaries, managed by one Della Jamay Charboneau and run by NSA agent, Sam Namath.

Someone made the mistake of taking Della’s niece. And that was a truly epic mistake indeed.

Della Jamay is no ordinary aunt. She is an assassin with a very short temper and a very large arsenal. Doris’ assignment from Sam—to handle her handler and keep Della’s body count low. Plagued by prophetic dreams and embroiled in Della’s most private matters, rookie Doris finds herself in way over her head. Together the two women fight for their lives against ruthless New Orleans criminals and a mysterious voodoo priestess claiming to be stealing souls with fire in this thriller about family love versus true evil.

Non-stop action and suspense propels these two tough women through a mystery shrouded in the darkest aspects of human behavior and crime. Time is of the essence—every hour, every day the girl is missing means the trail is growing colder and her fate more dire. Della Jamay is forced back to her home, her hidden past and memories she would like to keep buried. Doris is pulled with her into a morass so dangerous and unthinkable it is beyond even her darkest nightmares. Intriguing subplots, explosive situations, humor, heartwarming moments and a cast of highly memorable characters combine with a touch of the paranormal to weave a tapestry of memorable proportions in this contemporary romance adventure.

Available on Amazon



My review: Della Jamay Charboneau was not your typical aunt. So when she received a 4 a.m. call regarding her 14-year old niece’s sudden disappearance, she geared up.
Doris was an engineer and ex-soldier that “thrived on leading a life ruled by order and self-imposed solitude.” Lately, she’s been experiencing dreams within dreams full of symbolism and cognition—a gift she inherited from her grandmother, a “witch.”
As part of a secret covert organization called the Secret Worldwide Agency, Doris is assigned to work with Della, “the Devil’s Angel,” to help find her niece. Working with her trigger-happy disposition, Doris wasn’t too thrilled.
What could’ve happened to the girl? How could she have just disappeared from the mall without a trace?
Story grabs you from the very start. I liked the female duo—strong, fierce, capable, and kick-a#@! The women were very smart and astute with good instincts. The investigation was quite lengthy with too many angles, making it daunting at times. I also thought that there were a few too many characters that didn’t really add much to the story.
Well-written and enticing, story is awash with complexity and a strenuous beat against time. With infections, explosions, and psychedelic dreams, the case takes the reader on a wild and crazy ride. In the haze of this mass confusion, the reader somehow gets wrapped up in this and you just have to know: where is the girl?
An action-packed tale.
My rating: 4 stars
~~~

Excerpt:

 

Della Jamay Charboneau stirred in a dark room as her phone rang. It was very late, or very early, according to how you viewed 4am. Catlike eyes flashed open, the whites gleaming from her mahogany face. She woke alert. She always did. There was a reason for that, it was called survival.“Hello.” Her voice was tinged with concern as she viewed the caller ID. You never want to hear from relatives at 4am.“She gone! Oh, Lord! Our Baby’s gone, Della!”Della sat bolt upright as she listened to her Grandmother’s plaintive voice. “What do you mean? Baileys gone?”“She didn’t come home last night. She went out to the mall on the bus. And she never came home!”Della went down the list of possibilities. That was what she was trained to do; friends, boyfriends, secret boyfriends, getting stranded, the hospitals. No, the ragged answers came back. Then the clincher, they had found her backpack at the mall. No 14-year-old walked away from her backpack. Not good, not good at all. Della felt her stomach tighten. Not good at all.“I called Ethan, Ethan Boudreaux.” Her Grandmother’s voice was more subdued now. “You remember Ethan? He was the little scrawny boy from down the road. Well, he’s all grown up now and a detective. Bless his heart, he came right over and helped me look for her. He’s the one that found the backpack. He’s here, you want to...”“Put him on the phone, Grandma.” Della cut her off and clinched her jaw.Fifteen minutes later Della was standing in front of her massive walk-in closet. She pushed up on a clothing hook on the wall and a hidden panel popped open along the back wall. It revealed a concealed storage area lined with shelves and hooks. A light came on illuminating a cache of weaponry ranging from handguns with silencers to an AK-47.Della Jamay Charboneau was not your typical aunt.If someone had snatched her niece, they were about to be very sorry. Very damn sorry indeed.
*****
Doris Watson took a deep breath. The night air was heavy with humidity and the smell of decomposing marshlands. A full moon painted the small lake in front of her with pale blue light. She walked out on a short, floating dock to get a better view. It bobbed slightly under her with each step. The small pontoons strapped to its sides moved restlessly in the water. She wanted a picture and raised her digital camera. It did its automatic adjustments, focusing and popping up its strobe. The flash popped and the image appeared in the viewing window on the back of the camera. Doris stared at the image with some confusion. The small lake was peppered with hundreds of points of lights. Curious, she thought. She gazed at the scene before her. The water was filled with logs. She set the flash off again without squinting through the viewfinder. The points of light lit up again in response to the light. Points of light reflecting back from the logs. But then she realized what she was seeing were eyes. Water sloshed nearby. She turned to see a dark form heaving itself up from the black water. It was big and very long. Its body seemed to take forever to leave the water. A bull alligator, wet and glistening lumbered up on the bank and turned to view her. Its scales were large and rough and black in the night. Its mouth opened, and showed rows of white jagged teeth. A rattling noise came from deep in its throat as it took a step in her direction. The dock under her feet moved suddenly, slightly rocking. Alarmed, Doris turned to scan the lake. She seemed to be drifting out into the lake. Turning back to the shore she saw the bull alligator was gone, but in its place was a hulking shadow of a man, arms crossed. She heard him laugh as she slid away on the platform—into the dark lake of alligators. The raft rocked softly up and down. Doris’ heart pounded in her chest as she clutched at her camera. Water splashed at her feet. She looked down in horror to see that the platform was slowly sinking as it moved out into the water.This is a damn dream. Wake up, Doris!An alligator bumped the sinking dock as it slid by. Its yellow green eye blinked as it watched her. “Wake up!” she heard herself shout as she sat up in bed. She was soaked in sweat, and a shiver ran over her body. As she gasped for breath, she realized she was cold and disoriented. And she was angry. She stared at the glowing numbers on her clock. It was 5am and there was no way she was going back to sleep. She whipped the covers back, grabbed up her robe and headed for the kitchen.For about a year Doris had been having to deal with the occurrence of alarmingly real dreams. Intense dreams that were often mystifyingly symbolic and at the same time precognitions of things to come. That was the part of her that was seriously deep, dark and creepy. She was trying to learn to deal with it, to recognize it when it happened and wake herself out of it. 

Review: NIGHT TERROR by Ken Harris

Has anyone ever considered hypnotism as an alternative medical treatment?
Dr. Otis was certain that he could eradicate the dark cancer plaguing his patient’s brain…all thanks to his golden skull pendant. But at what price? After all, you can’t stop death.
Like Final Destination, the patient still met a grim death soon after leaving the doctor’s office. 
In this 12-year scheme, Otis has never experienced anything like this before. But, still, he shouldn’t feel bad. After all, “she asked for help out of her misery…she got it.” (12)
But then the words from that Chinese merchant reverberate in his head. “Once you put this on your neck, never take it off. For the day you do, its power diminishes forever…and so will your life.” (14)
This was an interesting, dark tale—smart and philosophical.
My rating: 4 stars

Review: THE THIRTEENTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS & OTHER TALES OF YULETIDE HORROR by David Allen Voyles

These stories are a Christmas tales with a horror twist.
One man spends Christmas Eve at a graveyard. One woman receives a “nightmare box.”
There seemed to be a literary style to the writing, almost in an old-fashioned sense. They’re not really scary. In fact, each story contains a bit of dark irony. I would’ve liked the stories to have been more simplistic. I felt there were often too complex with too many characters and too many points of view. I didn’t quite enjoy these stories as much as I expected. They were almost too dull for me.
My rating: 2 stars

Review: BURNED TO A CRISP by K.A. Miltimore

Hedy, along with her bakery, was known as The Gingerbread Hag. Pies, muffins, cookies, and brownies—those were her specialty.
The town she lived in had an eclectic bunch of characters, but, unfortunately, none were too memorable. Story had a lagging pace, and I couldn’t always follow it. The community struck me as rather drab, to be honest. Nothing was too scintillating.
I thought that this would be an interesting mystery, but I just couldn’t get into it.
My rating: 2 stars

Review: HOW THE GHOST STOLE CHRISTMAS by Erin McCarthy

Bailey was decorating for the Christmas gala for children patients. She only had to worry about replacing the Santa (her boyfriend had that honor.) She did not expect a ghost to jump at her face. See, Bailey was a medium that could see ghosts. Of course, she only saw ghosts whenever there was a dead body nearby. Oh no…C’mon, it was Christmas! Death and Christmas do not mix. But you know what they say: Death doesn’t take a day off. In this case, it was the Santa that croaked. Evidently, he was murdered 3 years ago and his body was in the slide. Great.


Bailey has that sharp wit; however, she tends to yammer too much at times. I didn’t really feel like she concentrated on the case. In fact, she struck me as kind of flighty.


Okay read though.


My rating: 3 stars