A.B. Shepherd's Blog, page 16

Is this a true story? Virginia Creeper by Blaine Lee Pardoe #bookreview

My review:
Okay Abites, bear with me on this one. This is written as a true crime story. The protagonist in the book IS Blaine Pardoe, the author. He claims, in an interview I read, that although some of the names were changed, everything else is true.

But here's the thing. While the story is a good story - it is creepy, violent, and horrific - it is also paranormal. That in itself lends it to some skepticism. I'm not saying paranormal stuff can't be real. BUT...

And this, for me, is a BIG but...

Blaine Pardoe is reportedly a published author of many non-fiction works. This book is not self-published - it is published by Hydra

Is that a stunt? Did they deliberately leave in the typos and the unpolished writing to lend more creedence to the "true story" feel? Is it a marketing ploy of some sort?

If so, it has backfired on me. Occasional typos are one thing. I can get past them. But this book is riddled with them. I found the typos really distracting, having to read a  sentence through more than once to figure out what the author was trying to say. The writing was repetitive until you got at least half way through the book (I nearly gave up).

The other major problem I had with this book, is that the book itself makes up only 75% of the Kindle download. All the other promotional stuff at the back is the other 25%. While it is the norm to publish promotional material at the back of a book (my own book has about 10%) I do think 25% is extremely excessive.

So in summary, it was creepy enough that when I finished it at 2 a.m. I needed to pick up something lighter and start reading it so I wouldn't be dwelling on it as I tried to sleep - which I think is a good thing, and the story held my interest. But unless the author gets this book polished up and proof read I really can't recommend it.

Abites, do you like "true" crime/paranormal stories? What is the best one you have read so far?

Book Blurb:
Personal Journal: Blaine Pardoe

“I wasn’t prepared for this, hell, no one was, especially the police. I could wrap my mind around a serial killer back then. Oddly, that was easy especially when these crimes first broke. Serial killers seemed commonplace – almost boring. The Route 211 killings were big news, but only for a few weeks, then the story disappeared, except for those of us involved with the investigation.

“These killings were something more. The Virginia Piedmont had malevolent secrets that were thought long lost and forgotten. The more I dug the more I discovered that these horrific murders spanned centuries. The common link to the savage murders was to the crazy Fitzwater family, but their ties to the crimes were even more sinister than the public ever knew. It was something dark and evil, a killer that didn’t just kill his victims, it performed rituals that still send shivers down my spine.

“Nothing prepared me to face a force of darkness centuries old, one that consumed its victims to cheat death. I always said I had seen everything until that autumn of 1998 when I found myself ensnared in a diabolical growth of Virginia Creeper…


About the author:
Blaine Pardoe is an award winning author of numerous books in the science fiction, military non-fiction, true crime, paranormal, and business management genre's. He has appeared on a number of national television and radio shows to speak about his books. Pardoe has been a featured speaker at the US National Archives, the United States Navy Museum, and the New York Military Affairs Symposium. He was awarded the State History Award in 2011 by the Historical Society of Michigan and is a silver medal winner from the Military Writers Society of America in 2010. In 2013 he was awarded the Harritt Quimby Award as part of the induction ceremony at the Michigan Aviation Hall of Fame. Mr. Pardoe is also a member of the League of WWI Aviation Historians.

His books have even been mentioned on the floor of the U.S. Congress. His works have been printed in six languages and he is recognized world-wide for his historical and fiction works. He can be followed via Twitter (bpardoe870)

Ugh! A rant and Version 2.0 by C.M. Adams #bookreview

Hello Abites - I'm venting today - please read on.

Version 2.0 by C.M. Adams

My review:This book sucked me in and had me all the way. I was so intrigued. And then - BAM - without warning the book ended. This author has broken what I think is the cardinal rule of series writing. 
Authors please take note - I've said it before and I'll say it again. If you are writing a book series you need to have two things. You need to have a major plot line that runs through all of the books in your series - this plot line is what will carry your readers on to the next book in the series. But you also need to have a minor plot lot for EACH book that can be resolved in that book so that each book gives a sense of closure and satisfaction while the major plot lines drags them forward to the next book. 
A perfect example of doing this right is Ann Charles's Deadwood series.
Instead this author tried to emulate Hugh Howey's Wool series. It might have worked for Howey, but that doesn't mean it will work for everyone.

For me, the Wool series only works because Howey later released it as an Omnibus (which is how I read it). Had I bought book one in the series I never would have read on to book two for these exact same reasons. 

Ditto Version 2.0. I loved the book - right up to the end. It very nearly would have gotten a 5 star rating from me. 

But nope. Nuh uh. No way, no how.
I look at it kind of like this. It's like when you are having a fabulous make out session and just when you are about to take things to the next level your partner stops and walks away, leaving you hanging there aroused and completely unsatisfied. 

Hate. It. 

Needless to say I can't recommend Version 2.0 and I won't be reading it's sequel.  
Book Blurb:Book one. An in depth introduction to what will become a series.

Former FBI agent Amber "Birdie" Farran wakes up in a community of people called Proprietors, on a part of Pritchards Island that no one else knows exists. They're there for their own protection; a people created by a government-legislated experimental trial gone wrong. They're protected from the outside world, from people who wouldn't understand and would destroy them all if they knew the truth.

Or would they?

Join Birdie on her journey of discovery, both of her people and of herself. Unanswered questions will lead her down a path toward answers she was never meant to know.   About the author: Adams was raised in upstate New York where she had originally aspired to be a veterinarian. Dreams thwarted by the realization, at age 12, that the profession included putting animals to sleep, she instead decided that she'd much rather be cryogenically frozen until the age of Starfleet Command came along. Sadly, her parents told her that this wasn't a possibility. This is about the time when she began writing, but it was simply for fun and something that she found herself spending more and more time doing.
Other career aspirations led her into 4 years of college studying psychology, criminology, education and computer technology. But nothing ever quite kept her interest. Writing was still highly integrated into everything she did, but it had been a private thing.
After growing some confidence by anonymously writing and posting fanfiction online, she decided to take things further and use the art of unprofitable writing in order to create an event to raise money for charities. Authors Note is an unofficial organization that runs an author convention solely for writers and readers of fanfiction to come together and meet face to face while raising money for charity at the same time. These writers come from all over and share their story of how they got into writing, and how fanfiction changed their life. The biggest way it has done so, for many, are the fans.
Because of these fans, Adams was inspired to take the leap into original fiction and publishing.

$25 Amazon GC up for grabs with Magic Bound by V. J. Devereaux Cover Reveal!

Magic Bound - Book 2

Homicide Detectives Rafaela Stratford and Sasha Gutierrez (Blood Bound) find themselves investigating a series of murders that seem to have been committed by paranormals. As a werewolf himself, Sasha knows that neither his people nor vampires were the killers, despite the evidence. Desperate for clues they turn to Rhian Lewis, the proprietor of an occult bookstore...and a witch. What she finds turns them all into targets..

Magic Bound is the second in THE BOUND SERIES, an erotic m/f/m paranormal read. In honor of the cover reveal the author is offering Blood Bound for 99¢ for the weekend!She is also offering up a $25 Amazon Gift Card for one lucky winner! Who knows, you could win and get even more of Valeries amazing reads!a Rafflecopter giveaway

Add Magic Bound to your Goodreads list by clicking here.

About the author:Valerie Douglas is the multi-published author of novels of fantasy, mystery, suspense and romance, among them, The Coming Storm series , Heart of the Gods , Song of the Fairy Queen , The Last Resort , Two Up and Dirty Politics . 
Under her pen name of V. J. Devereaux she's also the author of several well-reviewed erotic romances - Cherry's Jubilee , Special Delivery and Demon's Kiss . Valerie lives in the beautiful heartland of Ohio with her beloved husband, two dogs, three cats, and an African clawed frog named Hopper.
WEBSITE | BLOG | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | GOODREADS | ME | AMAZONV.J. Devereaux on Goodreads

Chick lit with a message - Salvation Jane by Ann Massey #bookreview

Hi Abites - today on the blog I am pleased to share my review of Salvation Jane by Ann Massey - it is chick lit with a message.

My review:
I was given a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review, which I gratefully accepted because I enjoyed the author's two previous books,The Biocide Conspiracy and The White Amah.
 
Jane Patterson is a typical Australian city girl, who has just broken up with her philandering boyfriend when she inherits a hotel from her recently deceased uncle on the other side of the country. She moves to collect her inheritance believing she is going to build a new, more prosperous life for herself as a business owner.

What she finds isn't quite what she expected. Her hotel is actually low rent accommodation for homeless men, and is full of the smelly, unwashed dregs of society. She is horrified, dismayed, and determined to spruce the place up and turn it into a backpackers hostel which will flourish with the tourist trade.

Along the way though, she learns that maybe not everything is as she assumed. Maybe, just maybe, the homeless don't choose to be homeless.

This book is set in Perth, Western Australia and is full of Australian flavor and Australian terminology and pop culture references. One of my favorites is "it's going straight to the pool room" which is a line showing pride and appreciation from a classic Australian movie, The Castle.

As an Australian resident, who is horribly ignorant regarding the Australian political system, I also found it educational.

Salvation Jane reads like chick lit, but has a message and a moral. A very welcome addition to the collective works of author Ann Massey.


Want to buy Salvation Jane? Click here to get it at Amazon. Also, check out The Biocide Conspiracy and The White Amah.

Book Blurb:
A FIERY CHAMPION OF THE HOMELESS MAKES HER HOME IN PARLIAMENT

As Australia sinks into depression a new political party delivers hope to the poor. The brainchild of Jane Patterson, the new independent MP holds the balance of power. But when the fiery champion of the homeless compels the minority government to support her radical reforms, faceless power-brokers plot to destroy her.

SALVATION JANE is a fast-paced contemporary political novel woven in reality and based on the 1990s conspiracy to have a political rival unfaily jailed for electoral fraud. It confronts head-on one of the most current issues of the decade: the working poor.

About the author, Ann Massey:
I grew up in the tough environment of a council estate, in north-west Bolton. After emigrating to Australia at fifteen, I worked at various lacklustre jobs before going to live in the jungles of Borneo. 

It was at this time that I began to record heart-wrenching stories of the sexual exploitation of Iban girls, portrayed in THE WHITE AMAH. A stint as a governess on an outback sheep station close to the Carnarvon Space Obsevatory provided the setting for my next book, THE BIOCIDE CONSPIRACY. 

My new release, SALVATION JANE is about a new and idealistic MP and an ambitious politician out to make a name by scapegoating the homeless. I live in Perth, Western Australia.

Check out Ann's blog at http://cannotletthispass.blogspot.com.au.

 

Video #bookreview of Oh Dear Silvia by Dawn French

Hello Abites! (What is an Abite? Explanation in video.) This video book review is an experiment.  This took a lot of time and effort to put together - easily eight times as long as it takes to put a normal book review together - so you're going to have to LOVE it for me to want to continue doing this kind of thing. I considered doing a transcript as well, to correct the few spoken mistakes I made, but I've decided not to this time. I think the visual elements correct them adequately. 


I know that I most often use my computer with the sound off, so if you do the same a video review might not work for you. This is where I'm counting on feedback to let me know. Please comment to tell me if you would prefer more video reviews like this, or if text reviews are your preference. Majority is going to win. 

Link to my review of A Tiny Bit Marvellous by Dawn French. 

Link to my review of Bluff by Lenore Skomal.
 
  
Dawn French discusses Oh Dear Silvia.





Book blurb:Who is in Coma Suite Number 5?

A matchless lover? A supreme egotist? A selfless martyr? A bad mother? A cherished sister? A selfish wife?

All of these. For this is Silvia Shute who has always done exactly what she wants. Until now, when her life suddenly, shockingly stops.

Her past holds a dark and terrible secret, and now that she is unconscious in a hospital bed, her constant stream of visitors are set to uncover the mystery of her broken life. And she must lie there, victim of the beloveds, the borings, the babblings and the plain bonkers.

Like it or not, the truth is about to pay Silvia a visit. Again, and again and again...



About this author: Dawn Roma French is a British actress, writer and comedian. In her career spanning three decades, she has been nominated for six BAFTA Awards and also won a Fellowship BAFTA along with her best friend Jennifer Saunders. 

She is best-known for starring in and writing her comedy sketch show, French and Saunders, alongside her comedy partner Jennifer Saunders, and for playing the lead role of Geraldine Granger in the sitcom The Vicar of Dibley.

11/22/63 by Stephen King #bookreview

Book blurb:
If you had the chance to change the course of history, would you? Would the consequences be what you hoped?

Jake Epping 35 teaches high school English in Lisbon Falls, Maine, and cries reading the brain-damaged janitor's story of childhood Halloween massacre by their drunken father. On his deathbed, pal Al divulges a secret portal to 1958 in his diner back pantry, and enlists Jake to prevent the 11/22/1963 Dallas assassination of American President John F. Kennedy. Under the alias George Amberson, our hero joins the cigarette-hazed full-flavored world of Elvis rock n roll, Negro discrimination, and freeway gas guzzlers without seat belts. Will Jake lurk in impoverished immigrant slums beside troubled loner Lee Harvey Oswald, or share small-town friendliness with beautiful high school librarian Sadie Dunhill, the love of his life?

My review:
This book is long, long, looooooong. It is 866 pages long - the equivalent of 2 1/2 or 3 normal books. I felt like I was never going to finish it and I didn't feel like it needed to be quite as long as it was. There were certainly parts that dragged for me a bit. But that is the absolute worst thing I can say about it.

Time travel is one of my favorite plot devices and I think it is really intriguing that this book takes a real life world changing event and fictionally tries to change the outcome via time travel.  Stephen King is the master of horror, but this is not a horror tale in the true sense, although there are some malevolent forces apparently at work here. It is a very complicated action, political thriller, science fiction, and romance novel. I admit I had a little trouble keeping track of some of the characters and sometimes had to pause to reflect on exactly who they were when they were mentioned again later in the book.

It raises a lot of good points about the butterfly effect (also known as the ripple effect) of time travel and how we really just don't know the far-reaching consequences that each and every tiny detail of our daily lives can have.

The plot is simple, go back in time and try to prevent the Kennedy assassination. But the story is very complicated, because to do that Jake Epping has to live in the past for five years before that momentous day arrives. There are many wrongs he feels the need to right along the way, and yet he needs to be careful of that butterfly effect.

While the ending of the book might not be all that humanity might hope for, it is a very satisfying one. Well done Stephen King for tackling such a difficult topic and showing us how you might imagine it would play out. 

If you have the time to devote to a book of this length I highly recommend it.

Whether you have read this book or not please tell me - do you think preventing John F. Kennedy's assassination would make the world a better place today? Why, or why not?

About the author:
Stephen Edwin King was born in Portland, Maine in 1947, the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. After his parents separated when Stephen was a toddler, he and his older brother, David, were raised by his mother. Parts of his childhood were spent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his father's family was at the time, and in Stratford, Connecticut. When Stephen was eleven, his mother brought her children back to Durham, Maine, for good. Her parents, Guy and Nellie Pillsbury, had become incapacitated with old age, and Ruth King was persuaded by her sisters to take over the physical care of the elderly couple. Other family members provided a small house in Durham and financial support. After Stephen's grandparents passed away, Mrs. King found work in the kitchens of Pineland, a nearby residential facility for the mentally challenged.

Stephen attended the grammar school in Durham and then Lisbon Falls High School, graduating in 1966. From his sophomore year at the University of Maine at Orono, he wrote a weekly column for the school newspaper, THE MAINE CAMPUS. He was also active in student politics, serving as a member of the Student Senate. He came to support the anti-war movement on the Orono campus, arriving at his stance from a conservative view that the war in Vietnam was unconstitutional. He graduated from the University of Maine at Orono in 1970, with a B.A. in English and qualified to teach on the high school level. A draft board examination immediately post-graduation found him 4-F on grounds of high blood pressure, limited vision, flat feet, and punctured eardrums.

He and Tabitha Spruce married in January of 1971. He met Tabitha in the stacks of the Fogler Library at the University of Maine at Orono, where they both worked as students. As Stephen was unable to find placement as a teacher immediately, the Kings lived on his earnings as a laborer at an industrial laundry, and her student loan and savings, with an occasional boost from a short story sale to men's magazines.

Stephen made his first professional short story sale ("The Glass Floor") to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967. Throughout the early years of his marriage, he continued to sell stories to men's magazines. Many of these were later gathered into the Night Shift collection or appeared in other anthologies.

In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching high school English classes at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels.

I can hear you breathing (and $10 Amazon gift card giveaway)

Is this thing on?
I know you are out there. I can hear you breathing. My hit counter shows it. You ARE reading this blog, but you won't talk to me. Why? Do I not ask the questions you feel like answering? Should I be asking something else? Are you too busy? Are your typing fingers broken?
I'm looking for a bit of feedback here. I want to make your reading experience the best it can be. Sure, I write this blog for me, but I write it for you too. So just for answering a few questions - you can enter to win a $10 Amazon gift card and/or an ebook copy of Lifeboat.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Please tell me:What are your favorite things about this blog? (Book reviews? Something else?)What would you like to see more of?What would you like to see less of?What will it take to get you to engage more and leave the occasional comment?What brought you here? Did you stop by because of a specific post? Which one?I'd like to make this a better experience for all of us, so to make it a little bit more fun, I'm offering a $10 Amazon gift card to one randomly selected commenter as chosen by Rafflecopter. Each question you answer of the 5 above gets you an entry. If you answer all 5 you get 5 entries. Use Rafflecopter to mark your entries - only valid comments count. Got it?
Thank you and good luck.
Now spill!

Book Review of The Other Side: Melinda's Story by Starr Gardinier Reina

Book Blurb:Melinda James’ father is dead. But he tries to warn her from the ‘Other Side’ that the killers from the past want something only Melinda can give them. And they are beginning to get far too close for comfort. Can dead people protect the living? And if they can, will it be enough? And does this ‘Other Side’ really exist or is this all in Melinda’s mind?

In her world, as portals open and close, Melinda must find a way to understand that the voices speaking are sending dire warnings. She is out of time. They are here, desperate to take what they feel is theirs and they will stop at nothing to get it.

My review:I was given an ebook version of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I was intrigued by this story. Melinda James has been in a mental institution since she was 14 years old. Now, a young adult she's hoping to get out if her new therapist can certify her as not a danger to herself or others.
For some reason the idea of a person who may, or may not, be insane is fascinating to me. Is Melinda really hearing her Dad from the other side? Or is she delusional? 
For me, this book had a few flaws - it was a little confusing at first flipping between Melinda's voice and her Dad's voice, and there is some issue with present versus past tense when Melinda is telling her story.

But those issues aren't huge and overall this was a very imaginative and enjoyable YA paranormal story. Some YA stories don't feel particularly YA and are only rated YA because the lead characters are teenagers or young adults. This is a true YA story, with a YA feel. I would recommend it for teens.
About the author:A paralegal by day, she’s an author by night. Apart from being an award winning author for her short story "Cut", Reina has appeared in a blaze and made her mark on the literary world with her Ivanovich Series. The
first is “In the Name of Revenge”, the second, “Deadly Decisions” and the third, "One Major Mistake" was released July 10, 2012. Having studied and obtained her Bachelor’s Degree in Literature/Creative
Writing, she has found her unique style and is known for her works' distinctive voice, making every character stand out.  
Reina is the artistic creator of the Ivanovich series featuring Pavel Ivanovich. Flanking Ivanovich's side in "Deadly Decisions" is Teresa Mancini, who vies with Ivanovich for readers' attention. According to
J.M. LeDuc, who was "raised in an Italian family", Teresa "is perfect...like all your characters". Reina is also the author of young adult novella "Cruel Whispers" and its sequel novel "Cruel Past".
Reina is an executive editor for Suspense Magazine. She has been interviewed in the newspaper and on the radio with relation to her fiction work. She has been a co-host on Suspense Radio.
Reina is a member of International Thriller Writers (ITW) and of Sisters in Crime, Los Angeles Chapter and nationally. She has won three Best Speaker awards as well as Best Evaluator at the Voice Ambassadors
chapter of Toastmasters. She has always been active in events. As co-chair and main coordinator for the West Coast Author Premiere, she arranged the weekend-long event to help authors from all over network,
learn and share their work with the public. Reina has also been instrumental in compiling authors and planning a local author event at Barnes and Noble in Ventura, California along with the store’s event manager.
Please read more about Starr at www.QueenWriter.com or visit her blog at www.qw-blog.blogspot.com.
You can also connect with Star via the following social media links:
www.facebook.com/starr.reina
www.facebook.com/Starr-Gardinier-Reina (author page)
www.twitter.com/SGReina
www.qw-blog.blogspot.com
www.QueenWriter.com

Love, Loss and Reflection

Like Cassie in Lifeboat, I have experienced great loss in my life. In my case, I haven't lost a husband and/or child, but I've lost too many and I've loved them all.
Six years ago my brother died. He was only 47 years old. He was older than I by a mere 14 months. He was ill, and we knew that, with a disease that usually takes years between diagnosis and death. It is the same disease that killed my mother two years later, and now threatens the life of my sister.
But in the case of my brother, he went from diagnosis to death in a much shorter time than usual. 
He was hospitalized with an exacerbation of the disease and we all expected he'd be treated and come home again soon, because that is typical of this disease. But we were soon told his disease had progressed and it was time for hospice. He was pretty doped up at this point due to the pain and we had to get them to ease  up on the drugs so we could discuss his options with him. 
His first grandchild was on the way and he was really looking forward to that. But he never got the chance to see her gorgeous face or the faces of the three more beautiful grandchildren that have come since.
One of the last truly coherent things he said to us was, "I guess I thought I had more time."  Two days later he was gone.
We all handle grief differently. I'm still dealing with mine.
One thing that most people don't know about me is that I have never been 47 years old in my own mind. For some reason when the calendar said I turned 47 the next year, the age he'd been on his death, I refused to be 47. Whenever the question of age arose, I was 48. I skipped my 47th year entirely. I was 48 for two years.
I know my brother isn't gone. Not completely. He still visits me in my dreams from time to time. He just visited me this morning. (Thank you for that.) 
But he isn't here either, not in the way that he wanted to be, and not in the way we want him to be.
The moral of this story is we don't always have all the time we think we do. This life can end much sooner than we expect. So today and every day - live, don't just exist - laugh, enjoy the life you have - and love, share that love with as many as you can. Don't let another day go by without telling and showing the people you love exactly how much they mean to you. 
Live life every day, in such a way that you would have no regrets if it is suddenly over.
Because otherwise - what's the point?
I love you Ker. Now and always.

Want to win a signed paperback copy of Lifeboat?

You can enter now on Goodreads.com!


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Goodreads Book Giveaway


Lifeboat
by A.B. Shepherd

Giveaway ends August 13, 2013.

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