Sandra C. Lopez's Blog, page 297

Review: GHOSTS OF DEMONS PAST by Matt Schiariti

Seth is going through a divorce and his son is having trouble in school. He also has an unorthodox job: he’s a “cleaner” (he cleans out ghosts from places.) He’s your average, everyday ghost hunter. He’s crass, bitter, snarky, and tells it like it is. He brings paranormal equipment just for show, to appease his clients. The truth is: he sees dead people. Been that way since he was a kid, often being made fun of for talking to his “imaginary friends.”


So he’s an “expert” on ghosts. Could demon possession also be up his alley?


This had a nice concept, but it was slow and a bit daunting. Not quite as scintillating, but okay.


My rating: 3 stars

Review: SHALLOW GRAVES: THE UNSEEN by Brian Martinez

A phone call leads Officer Franklin Butcher to the small-town church, where an old priest had some dreadful concerns. What they were, we don't know.
At first, you're not really too clear on the mystery. There's various characters that enter the scene, but not much is happening. Something was off about a couple's new house, especially with the plumber just disappearing. On top of that, there are phantom images, a demon dog, and eyes in the sink? Something was going on...but what?
The writing was pretty good and I have to say that there were some interesting descriptions. For example: "Its ever-changing skin was textured in bees wings and bird legs. Dead feathers and rotten scales. Black eyes that moved or didn't. Mouse bones wrapped in squirrel’s tail." (58) Talk about a creep factor. Ewe! What the heck is that? It was like Night of the Living Dead or something.
It turns out that the plumber manifested into this thing, "not a functioning man gone wrong," but a thing of pure evil. The house was obviously possessed.
This book has "creepy" written all over it, which is great for horror fans; but the thing was that with all the calamity, strangeness, and "ick" factor, it was kinda hard to get anything straight. What was this thing with The Self? I didn't quite get that. But, evidently, bodies were dying and being reincarnated into...things. This was just plain bloody horror.
My rating: 3 stars

Review: SOLVING CADENCE MOORE by Gregory Sterner

Radio host Charlie Marx had an idea and a pitch: to find out what happened to Cadence Moore. The Cadence was case was truly one of the classics...and the most unsolved.
"Even if this thing is the ultimate cold case… even if we’re barking up a dying tree, if we carve out the right story we will succeed. We will accomplish what I’ve promised my bosses we can accomplish." (9)
But, for Charlie, this was more than a chance for good ratings, since he's been obsessed with the Cadence case. Cadence Moore was a singing sensation, on the brink of stardom, and, on one tragic night, she just disappeared without a trace.
This was an interesting spin to the traditional murder mystery mainly because this whole thing was being aired as a miniseries for a radio show. The whole scheme behind it was to boost ratings, make careers, and ultimately cash in. Part of the narrative is written as radio podcasts with Charlie reciting the myths, mystery, and the climactic conclusion to the disappearance. The podcasts were written in a way to obviously drum up anticipation for the audience. To me, it sounded more like a lot of reporting, which didn't make for very compelling reading. The writing was pretty good, but I just didn't connect to the story very much.  
My rating: 2.5 stars

Review: DEATH BY SUSPENDERS by Laina Turner

On the first day of school, a dead body is found at the university. A teacher was hung by his own suspenders. Was it suicide or murder? Could there be a murderer on campus? Could the motive be tenure? Revenge for a bad grade?


This is a simple, who-dunnit mystery. It’s the work of an amateur detective. Overall, it’s okay, but I didn’t like that there were too many names to keep track of. It made it harder to follow the story.


My rating: 3 stars

Review: TEXAS TROUBLES by N.C. Lewis

Ollie is a widow with grown kids and recently let go from her corporate job. Now she’s a part-time teacher…or at least she WAS until she decides to impulsively buy a ranch house in TX. From NY to TX. Talk about a culture shock!


Can she run a ranch? Turns out the place was a money pit. TX was hot, which was all she seemed to notice. Yeah, what a shocker.


Story was kinda slow—like the TX life, I guess. It didn’t progress for me.


My rating: 2 stars

Review: KILLER CRUISE by A.R. Winters

Sailing the seven seas to find herself, Addy was working on a cruise ship as a Social Media Manager, meaning she gets to spend all day taking pictures and tweeting, instagramming, and facebooking. The first day on the ship, she finds one of the VIP guests dead. Could her best friend, a Customer Liason, have anything to do with it? After all, she was the last person seen with the victim. Aiming to prove her friend’s innocence, Addy starts her own investigation. Of course, working in social media made it easier for Addy to snoop around.


A witty, cozy mystery!


My rating: 4 stars

Review: 12 MONTHS OF ROMANCE (Holiday Anthology)

A woman prays to the Chinese gods for a new boyfriend and rocks in the new year with fireworks. There was actually two stories from this author. Why does Dev care way too much that she didn’t get asked out on Valentine’s Day? And that Jared guy was way too possessive.  Kind of a waste to have two stories on these two characters.

I think the best one was probably the one by Erleen Alvarez, who wrote a story about a woman going stag on V-Day. Stories were really not as great as I thought they’d be. Just a bunch of really dumb ones surrounding holidays I’ve never even heard of.


My rating: 2 stars

Review: SEASONS OF LOVE Collection by Liwen Y. Ho (Stories 1-4)

The More the Merrier (Story #1) – Alyssa Wu was spending yet another holiday looking for Mr. Right. Always so intense about her work (she’s a blog writer for a health company,) she just wants someone as compatible to her. Then comes the deal: In exchange for being Santa’s Little Helper, her neighbor/friend, Barry, will be her pretend boyfriend at her parent’s 60thanniversary party.


After one hospital event in an elf costume, Alyssa has decided that she’s in love with Barry. Wow, that fast, huh? And how convenient that Barry has always liked her.

The two play a good role for each other. Writing was pretty good, too.


An okay Xmas love story.

Rating: 3 stars



A Spoonful of Spice (Story #2) – Team Lead, Josh, is being forced to train the new IT girl. Drag! She’s the only girl in a team full of guys, so, naturally, she’s the center of attention. She even captures Josh’s attention, even he’s sworn off women for his technical career.
Life of a techie is not that thrilling, so some of the details were kind of dull. But I sure did admire a girl that could get into the field and prove the boys wrong. Although Josh and Cindy had a lot in common, I really didn’t see them as a couple. They were okay friends.
Honestly, I thought this story involved cooking, judging by the title, but the “spice” ended up being Cindy, which was short for Cinnamon. Kinda cute. Okay romance and good writing.

Rating: 3 stars



Of Buds and Blossoms (Story #3) – The couples from the previous stories make a cameo appearance as—yep, you guessed it—happily engaged couples. Gee, how typical!
I couldn’t really get into this particular story because there were too many people. In fact, it kind of crowded the story.

Rating: 2 stars



On Waves of Wanderlust (Story #4) – On a break from her long-time boyfriend, Macy tags along on a Mexican cruise as a third wheel to the happily engaged couple (the couple from Story#3). That’s where she meets the handsome and adventurous Jake. Before she knows, Macy is in the middle of a matchmaking scheme by the happily engaged couple. Oh joy. And, oh, how she practically jumped from the hills when she learns that Jake comes from a family of nuts. Apparently, the men in his family all proposed to their mates on the 1stand 2nd dates, because they just knewit was love at first sight. I certainly don’t believe in love at first sight and Macy was skeptical of it as well because, after all, that’s what she thought she had with Chase.
Although Jake was nuts on love, he was still nice and just looking for someone with “wanderlust”—the yearn to travel and experience the world (something I can relate to.) In an effort to break Macy of her cynicism on love, Jake was determined to make Macy see how much fun she can have traveling—with him. There was certainly a nice twist when Chase unexpectedly shows up, complicating the matters. And I loved the gift of the travel journal. I tell ya, that Jake knows how to please a fellow wanderluster.

Best story ever in the series! It was more real and authentic.
Rating: 4 stars

Review: THE MADONNAS OF ECHO PARK by Brando Skyhorse

Though filled with eclectic characters of women and men as well as being written by a man, this great book still couldn’t keep us from sharing it on LLVL.
I was immediately entrapped by the stories.
The author paints lustrous illustrations of the gritty L.A. scene completely overflowing by the earnest characters that leap off the pages. Smart and poetic—Skyhorse clearly exudes the soul of an artist with words that radiate with desolate beauty.
What I particularly liked was how the author did not “sugar-code” things. He gives us accurate accounts of what it’s like in the barrios with immigration, gang wars, racial hate, domestic abuse, infidelity, and family affairs.
This book is classified as having one story (and it is,) however, it is told by the various views of each character’s perspective, allowing the reader to learn what each desires from the American life while seeing their reality as it really was.
Hector is a hard-working man scrounging for every cent he can find by hanging out with fellow Mexicans to find work. In his view, we get to learn exactly what goes on in the head of a man.
Felicia has never been able to get over Hector’s betrayal, but still she keeps on going—going back to the rich homes to clean them. She could never fathom why people would pay so much for so little—something I’ve never been able to understand myself. That’s why she gets furious when her daughter starts acting like a rich, white kid when she was neither.
The most inspirational quote would have to be: “God is the fear that motivates you to protect yourself.” (pg. 57)
But the FUNNIEST tale would have to be “Rules of the Road,” a story about a bus driver constantly transporting a mixture of people of all ages and color from one bad part of town to another. I must say that I absolutely agreed with him when he said, “[Women] made their choices, and there is no reason to feel sympathy for someone who wants nothing out of her life and gets what she aims for.” (pg. 75) From then on, our bus drives continues to rag on how he hates it when Mexicans get offended when you don’t answer them in Spanish or how welfare broads are sucking money from his pockets everyday.
I absolutely loved how the lives of these characters intertwined together—very crafty!
An enjoyable read that many of us can relate to in some way. 
My rating: 5 stars

Review: SEX AND TAIPEI CITY by Yu-Han Chao

In “Strange Objects Museum,” customers can’t help but be drawn to an oddly-shaped saddle. It couldn’t hurt to take it for a ride, could it?
A surly flower girl learns more than she bargained for and that “marriage is no child’s play.”
A 15-year old recalls her “first time” at a musical auditorium hall. But did it come at a price?
And can “immersion” cause a sociological researcher to do something wrong, enticing, and…addicting?
“The man is always the filthy one, the corrupter, the one who breaks promises, ruins relationships, messes up his own life and the lives of those around him. I believe I carry out a form of justice.” (33)
“At this point women are a tiring presence in my life: three of them, all under my roof. The scariest one of them all? My mother-in-law.” (135)
This is not your typical love tales and rom-coms. Witty and remorsefully candid, stories reflect on the dark underbelly of love, sex, and relationships within the strict boundaries of Taiwanese culture. Each story brings lucid insight to the matter. I enjoyed the variety—stories with drama, secrets, fantasies, revenge, and blissful irony—as well as the cultural flavor. Chao is a natural story teller, infusing settings and characters with knowledge and reverence in this well-written collection.
My rating: 4 stars