Ingrid Hall's Blog, page 41

Review of Detective Stephy Wephy Holmes in the Missing Cake by Josh Rader

Detective Stephy Wephy Holmes in the Missing Cake by Josh Rader
Reviewed by A.C. Haury

Synopsis

Before dinner, Detective Stephy Wephy Holmes wanted to see what’s for dinner. It was meatloaf, which she didn’t like but they were going to have chocolate cake for dessert. But when her mother went to look at the cake, it was gone. It was up to Detective Stephy Wephy Holmes to use the clues to help solve the mystery of the missing cake. See if our hero, Detective Stephy Wephy Holmes can solve the mystery of the missing cake.

Review

As a mother of three children, I read through countless children’s books every month. My children each are required to read 100 books per marking period in school as part of a literacy challenge, so we definitely have encountered all types of children’s books. Some great, some not so great. Fortunately, Detective Stephy Wephy Holmes in the Missing Cake would be a welcome addition to any child’s library. I read this with my children, because I not only wanted to give my perspective and opinion, but the opinions of Josh Rader’s tough customers. I read this story to my youngest two children, who are four years old and seven years old. Both of them were fully engaged while I read the story to them, and I even got some chuckles out of my toughest book critic, Logan. I, in turn, thought this was an adorable book that not only taught a story but also made the journey fun as well. I certainly look forward to read some more of Josh Rader’s children’s books. My kids were asking if we could buy more Stephy Wephy books, so hopefully Josh will come out more soon!

I highly recommend this children’s book to all parents who are interested in getting their children to read more. This book kept my children engaged and interested from page one until “The End.”

Great Job Josh!

Best,

A.C. Haury

In case you missed it you can find Ingrid’s interview with Josh here:

You can find Josh Rader at: http://detectivestephywephy.blogspot.com/

and A.C Haury can be found at http://achaury.blogspot.com

Leonardo Ramirez Blog Tour, Giveaway and Book Review…

Woo Hoo!!!  I have been looking forward to hosting Leonardo ever since he asked me to and seeing how Lenora absolutely adored his children’s steam punk novel, The Jupiter Chronicles: The Secret of the Great Red Spot then I have been keen to also get in on the action and read some of his work!  In case you missed it, you can check out Lenora’s review here.

Leonardo is going to be giving away a mystery prize.  Simply share/comment on this post to be in with a chance of winning.  The winner will be announced here as well as over on the brilliantly named http://leonardoverse.com

REVIEW OF HAVEN OF DANTE: THE STAFF OF MOSHE

Haven of Dante is an epic tale of the struggle between good and evil.  Aimed at the young adult market, it effectively re-tells Dante’s Inferno in a contemporary setting.  The prologue which is set in the year 1306 and which is very atmospheric and almost biblical in tone, brilliantly sets the scene by providing the reader with enough of the back story between the Dante family and their adversaries to enable them to fully appreciate the scope of what is to come and I was definitely hooked and wanted more.

I was pleasantly surprised when the story then switched to the heroine, Haven whose lifestyle and impressive array of gadgets, courtesy of the family business are guaranteed to captivate the teen audience.   Haven is a complex and sassy heroine who because of the life experiences that she goes through definitely has more than a hint of vulnerability about her and again, I am sure that younger audiences will identify with her.

The story is very complex and stunningly visual throughout.  I thought Haven’s relationship with both of her parents was credible and I loved the whole array of satyrs and demons and was completely comfortable in the realm of Hell which is my second home anyway and liked the inclusion of Cerberus (Read my novel Granny Irene’s Guide to the Afterlife – Revenge Part 1!!!)

I have only two niggles with the story, firstly I felt the scenes involving the Virgilian Order slowed the plot down and I think that maybe, the author has thrown just a little too much into the mix for one book.  I would have liked less characters and a leaner storyline.I know the author is planning a series and I am sure that as it develops sub plots/characters will be more fully developed.  I was also a little uncomfortable with Haven’s assault because whilst it was very sensitively written and I fully understand why the author included it and he does deal with it as the book progresses, I felt that the scene warranted more of a reaction from her in the IMMEDIATE aftermath as it seemed to me that it was somewhat glossed over.

All in all though, this is an epic tale with a strong female lead that is guaranteed to have fantasy lovers of all ages completely spellbound.

Review of The Traveller by Garrett Addison

Garrett Addison is a forty something Australian, who currently lives in Melbourne with his family.  His many roles in life have included being in the army, working as a software consultant and lately as an author. The Traveller is a winner of The Bookcasts “Book of Exceptional Quality” Award.

I will say from the start that this is a VERY unusual book, both in the style it is written and the subject matter that it covers and it “probably”, although I shall use that term loosely won’t appeal to everyone.  In reality, if I hadn’t been sent this book to review, I “probably” wouldn’t have gone anywhere near at as it is most definitely not the type of book I would normally consider and I would “probably” have assumed that I would have been bored witless by it.

I would have assumed WRONG!! The Traveller, engaged me from the opening sentence and kept me hooked right up until the very end.  I started the book a few weeks ago as my bedtime reading and found myself constantly thinking about it and looking for opportunities to pick it back up.  In fact, it is fair to say there were times when I was incredibly frustrated by the fact that I didn’t have time to read it!

The Traveller, is a first person account by a travelling salesman whose name remains anonymous throughout the entire novel.  It opens with him setting off an another long haul trip and being forced to leave his long suffering wife and family behind again.  He is under performing and completely dissatisfied with his life and also has to contend with his bitch of a boss, whom he absolutely hates.  Early on in the trip, he undergoes a complete transformation and is suddenly ultra confident and can do no wrong and I am surprised to say that in spite of the fact that most of the story involves detailed accounts of his day to day working life, I was completely drawn into his selfish, hedonistic, misogynistic world.  I should have hated his arrogance, his unfaithfulness, but I actually found that part of his dubious appeal!  There are elements of blatant sexism which I am sure, will have some readers cringing and hurling their kindles across the room in disgust, however, I felt it was completely in fitting with the character and the plot and I wanted more…

There is a definite distance between the reader and the characters: Hardly any are actually named and whilst in other novels this would be incredibly problematic, it completely works in the Traveller.  I loved the bromance between unnamed salesman and the boss of a rival firm, Emile, and I felt that by giving him a name the author cleverly wove in an element of stability that would otherwise have definitely been missing from the novel.

The Traveller’s hatred of his female boss was surprisingly compelling, because I kept wondering where this was going?  I  appreciate that other readers may have liked to see the whole picture, however I loved the fact that we only saw it from his point of view and as I am a lover of all things first person, this totally worked for me!

I was slightly disappointed by the way the book drew to a close, because for all The Traveller got a happy ending, it wasn’t the happy ending that I wanted for him and I did feel like it was somewhat of an anti-climax: Sex without the orgasm if you get my drift!

Overall though, this is an incredibly well written, unusual story which totally captured my imagination from beginning to end and I will definitely be reading further works by this author.

You can catch up with the author at http://www.garrettaddison.com

Review of the Journey by John A. Heldt

Since she read and reviewed The Mine by the same author, our reviewer Julia has become addicted to the series…Here is her review of her the next book in the Northwest Passage Series. 

 REVIEW BY JULIA FLOWERS WRITING AS A.T WEAVER

John A. Heldt is a reference librarian and the author of THE MINE, THE JOURNEY, THE SHOW, and THE FIRE, the first four novels of the critically acclaimed Northwest Passage time-travel series. The former award-winning sportswriter and newspaper editor has loved getting subjects and verbs to agree since writing book reports on baseball heroes in grade school. A graduate of the University of Oregon and the University of Iowa, he is an avid fisherman, sports fan, home brewer and reader of thrillers and historical fiction. When not sending contemporary characters to the not-so-distant past, he weighs in on literature and life at johnheldt.blogspot.com.

 “Seattle, 2010. When her entrepreneur husband dies in an accident, Michelle Preston Richardson, 48, finds herself childless and directionless. She yearns for the simpler days of her youth, before she followed her high school sweetheart down a road that led to limitless riches but little fulfillment, and jumps at a chance to reconnect with her past at a class reunion. But when Michelle returns to Unionville, Oregon, and joins three classmates on a spur-of-the-moment tour of an abandoned mansion, she gets more than she asked for. She enters a mysterious room and is thrown back to 1979.

Distraught and destitute, Michelle finds a job as a secretary at Unionville High, where she guides her spirited younger self, Shelly Preston, and childhood friends through their tumultuous senior year. Along the way, she meets widowed teacher Robert Land and finds the love and happiness she had always sought. But that happiness is threatened when history intervenes and Michelle must act quickly to save those she loves from deadly fates. Filled with humor and heartbreak, THE JOURNEY gives new meaning to friendship, courage, and commitment as it follows an unfulfilled soul through her second shot at life.

How many of us have ever wanted to go back in time and change the outcome of our own life? That’s just what Michelle Preston Richardson does.

Most time-travel rules say you should not do things that may change the course of history and you should definitely not interact with your former self. But, what are rules for but to be broken or bent. That is what Heldt does in this second book of his Northwest Passage series.  Michelle uses her knowledge of the future to nudge not only her younger self, but former classmates and friends, into taking a different path.  However in doing so, she allows herself and others to find more meaningful and fulfilling lives and in some cases, longer lives.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book even if the ending left me with a question. “Does time really exist?”  I can’t wait to read the next in the series…

Julia Flowers writes under the name A T Weaver and can be found at:

http://atweaver-writer.com/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/A-T-Weaver-author/149528070288?ref=ts

Review of One Dark Halloween Night by John Kohlbrenner

John Kohlbrenner was born in Arkansas and studied at the University of Colorado.  In addition to his writing he has also worked as a sound editor…

Jason Myers is a typical twelve year old boy with a strong moral compass. He enjoys hanging out with his friends, is obsessed by monsters and ghosts and is crazy about Halloween.  Jason lives in the sleepy little town of Autumnville (The name itself begs to be part of a horror story!) and soon discovers that something evil is going on and he sets out to save Autumnville from annihilation.

The book opens with with the demise of simpleton farmer, Jake Flayger: Death by scarecrow and pumpkin and this nicely sets the tone for what is to come! I found myself chuckling as I read the opening chapter and even though I felt it was a little cheesy, I was definitely hooked and wanted to read more.  The story really takes off after the second chapter and the witches, devils, skeletons, scarecrows and…jack o lanterns get scarier and scarier.  I loved the fact that the monsters in this story are old school and that the author refrained from going into vampire or zombie overkill.

The author nicely explores the traditions around Halloween.  The tween characters are all extremely well rounded, I loved the dynamic going on in Jason’s little group.  I also liked the fact that in spite of his age Jason does have a spine.  He does have a moral compass and sense of responsibility to his family and community.  This in particular shone through with his flawed relationship with his brother and I was genuinely touched by his attempts to protect the older boy in spite of the fact that Malcolm didn’t deserve it.   The way the adult characters are portrayed throughout the book, the mayor and Professor Grimmgraves in particular, is also interesting.

This Halloween tale certainly kept me entertained and I would definitely recommend it to parents looking to give their pre-teens a fright…

John Kohlbrenner can be found at:

http://www.onedarkhalloweennight.com

Wanted: Reasonably priced marketing services

Morning Everyone

Well, I have been a busy bee this morning.  I have managed to do a reasonable amount of work on my upcoming novella The Tunnel of Love and have also sorted it into chapters: A task that I LOVE because I only ever do this when I am really close to the end of a project!!

I need your help though, I am on the look out for effective marketing services particularly for The Tunnel of Love but also for my novel Granny Irene’s Guide to the Afterlife Revenge Part 1 as I have to face facts and accept that there are only so many hours in the day, I have a lot of things going on in my life apart from my writing and frankly, I don’t have time to be spending hours each week on marketing my books.  I am also planning on doing a lot of local advertising/ground work in the New Year, so really want someone else to take care of everything else!

In short, I am looking for:

* A reasonably priced copy writing service to come up with the text for the back cover of The Tunnel of Love as well as text suitable for online marketing.

* Marketing services/suggestions as to how I can effectively market Granny Irene’s Guide to the Afterlife Revenge Part 1 and The Tunnel of Love  (I am open to all serious suggestions)

Whilst I am open and receptive to service providers from around the world, it is also VITAL that any service that I use must be able to produce high standard material in English English, as opposed to American English! I dread to think what Granny Irene would sound like with an American drawl…

LOVE

INGRID xxx

Book Review: The Earth, The Gods and The Soul by Brendan Myers

A Review by Lenora

Brendan Myers is a Canadian author and philosophy professor who has worked in Canada and Ireland and has been a frequent visitor to England and Germany.  He has written on many topics including environmental ethics and climate change and his research into druidry won him the Mount Haemus Award from the Order of Druids, Ovates and Bards in 2008.  You can find out more about Brendan on his website: http://www.brendanmyers.net/wickedrabbit/

The Earth, The Gods and The Soul will be published by Moon Books on 29 November 2013.

The Earth, The Gods and The Soul by Brendan Myers

The Sub-heading for this book is:  A history of Pagan Philosophy, from the Iron Age to the 21st Century – and it certainly does what it says on the tin!  This is a weighty book and yet it is also a very lucid introduction to a vast range of philosophers and proto-philosophers from the ancient to modern.  Myers traces the roots and branches of Pagan thinking and philosophy over several thousand years – analysing the various philosophical arguments and propositions presented in the various sources: from the Classical world and its renowned philosophers such as Plato and Socrates, through the lacuna in pagan writings during the Christian era, to the stirrings of pagan philosophy found in  ‘Barbarian’ works of the Irish Wisdom Texts and Poetic Eddas.  He follows the route of pagan thought through to the Age of Reason and to the Nature writers of nineteenth century America – who brought nature to the fore in their world view.

Myers explores the nineteenth and twentieth century revivals of paganism via Madame Blavatsky, James Frazer and Robert Graves, Aleister Crowley, Gerald Gardiner and Doreen Valiente and brings the work right up to the present day via the birth of modern Neo-Paganism.   Finally he considers whether Pagan Philosophy has developed a critical tradition (with argument, criticism, counter-criticism etc shaping and re-developing/re-interpreting ideas) whilst being effectively denied the institutional support of museums, universities and the like due to the ascendancy of Christianity for much of recent history.

I have to say, this book took me a while to read.  Although I had heard of most of the philosophers mentioned (and even read some of them) I have never studied philosophy so, frankly, don’t really understand it very much!!  Hence I was expecting to be just a bit out of my depth with this book.  However, I was happily surprised.  Myers is a very good writer and presents his arguments with passion and clarity.

Myers takes time to clearly lay out what makes a philosophical argument: basically asking really BIG questions and using ‘systematic critical reasoning’ to investigate them (N.B. but to avoid dogmatic ‘Answers’ as philosophy is an ongoing process!) He also outlines how he proposes to define ‘pagan philosophers’ as clearly many of the writers in the ‘Christian Era’ may have held more or less recognizably pagan views but would not necessarily have identified themselves as pagans.  To justify his choice of writers, he explains the three main strands of paganism that he considers are identifying factors in pagan philosophy:  Pantheism, Neo-Platonism and Humanism.

I could write A LOT on this book.  I found it utterly fascinating and extremely well researched.  The second half of the book, which deals with writers who may be more familiar to Modern Pagan readers (Blavatsky, Frazer, Graves, Crowley, Bonewits, the Farrer’s) I found to be easier to read simply because they were more familiar to me.   Myers also examines the influence of Feminist Philosophers (including the legendary Simone De Beauvoir) on pagan thinking, and the intersecting of eco-theory into the mainstay of pagan world views – I found these sections to be of particular interest as they seemed to show the beginnings of a critical tradition within paganism.

The history of Paganism and Neo-Paganism and its philosophical heritage deserve to be considered worthy of serious study.  Modern Pagan need to re-evaluate some of the ‘accepted truths’ of Neo-Paganism  – such as Murray’s surviving witch-cult; Daly’s ‘Burning Times’ – and consider that they are more akin to foundation myths rather than history.  However, as Myers notes, this does not diminish their importance because they still clearly have mythical and poetic truths contained within them. Nevertheless recognizing this will help in further developing a serious ‘critical tradition’ for Pagans which can only be a good thing. I think that Brendan Myers book is an important part of this growing trend for serious study of paganism and its philosophy.

The Earth, The Gods and The Soul by Brendan Myers will be published on the 29 November.  It is available to pre-order on Amazon:

The Earth, The Gods and The Soul – A History of Pagan Philosophy: From the Iron Age to the 21st Century

Review of the Mine by John A. Heldt

REVIEW BY JULIA FLOWERS WRITING AS A.T WEAVER

John A. Heldt is a reference librarian and the author of THE MINE, THE JOURNEY, THE SHOW, and THE FIRE, the first four novels of the critically acclaimed Northwest Passage time-travel series. The former award-winning sportswriter and newspaper editor has loved getting subjects and verbs to agree since writing book reports on baseball heroes in grade school. A graduate of the University of Oregon and the University of Iowa, he is an avid fisherman, sports fan, home brewer, and reader of thrillers and historical fiction. When not sending contemporary characters to the not-so-distant past, he weighs in on literature and life at johnheldt.blogspot.com.

Finally, I’ve been given a book to review in a genre I know and love. “In May 2000, Joel Smith is a cocky, adventurous young man who sees the world as his playground. But when the college senior, just days from graduation enters an abandoned Montana mine, he discovers the price of reckless curiosity. He emerges in May 1941 with a cell phone he can’t use, money he can’t spend, and little but his wits to guide his way. Stuck in the age of Whirlaway, swing dancing, and a peacetime draft, Joel begins a new life as the nation drifts toward war. With the help of his 21-year-old trailblazing grandmother and her friends, he finds his place in a world he knew only from movies and books. But when an opportunity comes to return to the present, Joel must decide whether to leave his new love in the past or choose a course that will alter their lives forever. THE MINE follows a humbled man through a critical time in history as he adjusts to new surroundings and wrestles with the knowledge of things to come.”

It took me a while to get into this story. At first it follows the normal ‘time-travel’ format. Someone from the current century enters some type of vortex and ends up in another time and place. Although Joel Smith may still be in the same place; it’s fifty-nine years ago, when the rest of the world was at war and America had yet to enter it.

The author’s attention to the clothing, attitudes, and sights of a bygone era is nothing short of spectacular. From his descriptions of the cars to the dresses (and hats) of the women of a pre-war America he paints a picture straight from the pages of history. He’s paid special attention to the locale of Seattle and the style of buildings and businesses.

Joel’s struggle to keep from altering history is evident when he meets his grandmother and wonders about the fact she is dating a man not his grandfather. He uses his knowledge of future events, particularly sporting events, to increase the wealth of himself and his new friends. I was soon caught up in Joel’s anxiety as he falls in love and debates what to do. I was kept on the edge of my chair. I couldn’t decide if I wanted him to stay or bring Grace back to this century with him.

The ending pleased me very much and I was glad to see this is the first of a series and look forward to reading the rest of the series…

.

Julia Flowers writes under the name A T Weaver and can be found at:

http://atweaver-writer.com/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/A-T-Weaver-author/149528070288?ref=ts

Noveltunity…

Morning peeps…

Every now and again an opportunity comes along that is simply too good not to share!

Noveltunity is a new online book club which has been created to help new authors jumpstart their careers.  This site is NOT just for authors.  It is for readers too!

Starting in November, anyone signing up during the FREE beta period will receive 3 FREE books every month.

There will also be worldwide online meeting rooms enabling readers to interact with authors.

PLUS

Workshops on marketing and creative writing

I have signed up just now, what are you waiting for, whether you are a reader or an author head on over to http://www.noveltunity.com and register now!

Review of My Two Lives by Jan Hunter

A former Head of Drama, Jan Hunter was born in Scarborough and currently lives in the North Yorkshire Moors.  In 2005 she won the Northern Echo Short Story Competition for her story about her mother’s battle with Alzheimers Disease.  My Two Lives is her debut novel.

My Two Lives tells the story of Jill Woods, a thirty something teacher whose personal life is in disarray and whom finds herself suddenly travelling back in time to a life that she led in Victorian Britain at Beaumont Castle (Castle Howard) in North Yorkshire.

Readers of this blog will know that I love all things time travel and reincarnation and it’s fair to say that I had pretty high expectations when I started reading this book and whilst I should point out that the book is extremely well written and grammatically correct, I am sorry to say that the opening chapters disappointed me. Whilst I have several friends and family members that are school teachers, I really struggled to identify with or empathise with any of the supporting characters, which I found at best irritating and at worst infuriating and whilst as the book progresses it does become clear why they are there, I really wish the author hadn’t placed so much emphasis on the school setting.

That said, as the book progressed I found myself starting to enjoy it more.  Hunter’s portrayal of Victorian England is excellent and credible and she gets to grips with some gritty themes: Child prostitution to name just one. I  definitely found the past life of Alicia way more interesting than the contemporary life of Jill and wish the author had placed more emphasis on that particular life.  I would also have liked the romantic scenes to be a lot hotter as the relationship between Lord Charles and Alicia had potential to be dynamite.  I would have also liked more on the actual dynamics of the love triangle as I found Lady Elizabeth’s acceptance of the whole thing just a little too weird!

The author’s portrayal of time travel and reincarnation is interesting however I am not sure that I buy into the concept of everyone looking the same or similar and everyone having very similar roles in each of their lives.  I would have liked the author to completely mix this up as at times I found this element cliched.  The jumping from past to present was also at times confusing and would have been best done in separate chapters.

I really hope that I am not sounding too down on what was in the end a safe and pleasant read and whilst it’s fair to say that I didn’t LOVE it, I did definitely LIKE it.

You can find Jan at:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jan-Hunter-Author/503464429674710