Reviewed by Lloyd Lofthouse

Coping with the loss of a spouse is often one of the most difficult challenges in life, and it doesn’t matter if the spouse dies young, middle aged, old or somewhere in between. It is a heart breaking journey for the survivor made even more so if he was still deeply in love with his wife.

Although I have not suffered this loss and hope that I never do, as a child, I witnessed the devastation it caused to the aunt that raised my father when her husband of 76 years died without warning of a heart attack. It was as if someone had taken a knife to my father’s beloved aunt and carved out half of her soul.

I also witnessed my mother’s grief decades later when my father died after more than fifty years of marriage. She lived for another decade and suffered every day from his loss.

In “Getting Oriented”, we are introduced to Phil Fletcher, who has lost his wife of more than 30 years. Her death was unexpected. She was in good health and was out jogging when a car hit her.

The depression caused by her loss has caused Phil to feel as if he has no purpose in life. He misses her and writes letters to her, which he saves on his laptop. Then months after her death, he loses his job. Since he is in his fifties, one would think this double blow would be enough to kill him too, but Phil and his wife planned carefully and he is financially secure.

Then Jake, an old college friend, offers him a job as a tour guide in Japan, and Phil is perfect for the job. When he served in the US military decades earlier, he learned to speak, write and read Japanese and accepts Jake’s offer.

Phil’s job in Japan is to shepherd ten middle-class Americans, and it seems to be the right medicine to help him recover from the loss of his wife, whom he will never forget.

Right from the start, Phil learns that being a tour guide is not as easy as one might suspect. Ann, an evangelical Christian and the oldest woman on the tour, warns Phil that Jesse and Sharleen, another couple on the tour, may be planning a double suicide while in Japan since Sharleen is dying of cancer and have weeks or months to live.

Then there is Audrey and Freddie Korch—two sisters. Freddie arrived in Japan several days before the tour started and picked up a Japanese lover in Nagasaki. His name is Kurotani and he appears to be a member of the Yakuza, the Japanese mob. Soon, it is obvious that the belligerent and moody Freddie is being addicted to a Japanese drug supplied by her lover and the drug is called Shabu, known as meth or speed in the West. Shabu is illegal in Japan. Get caught selling or using it and you will go to jail.

If that is not enough of a challenge, Louise, an attractive single woman, attempts to seduce Phil, but his grief at the loss of his wife gets in the way and he rejects her advances. However, this gets him thinking, and a few days later, when Julia comes to his hotel room, Phil cannot resist her and they have an affair. To make matters worse, Julia is not single. Her husband Sal, who is on his third marriage, is on the tour too, but he drinks too much and does not appear physically attracted to his wife. When Jake learns of Phil’s affair with Julia, he worries that it might result in a lawsuit against his travel agency if Sal discovers what is going on.

As the plot thickens, Phil contacts two Japanese friends, Setsuko and her husband Kazuo. They meet for dinner and Setsuko introduces Phil to an attractive Japanese widow by the name of Mariko, and Phil is tempted to stay in Japan after the tour ends to connect with her.

Besides the multiple plot complications, there is the added treat of being taken on a rewarding tour of Japan. The author, Wally Wood, weaves flawless scenes of Japan while the group moves from site to site. These scenes are rich with history and sensory details that elevate the story to a level beyond the average novel providing a rich textual experience for readers. I highly recommend “Getting Oriented”.

This novel would easily adapt to film, which I would pay to see. The copy of “Getting Oriented” that I read was supplied free by the author as a Kindle e-book.

Street Raised
By Pearce Hansen
Copyright © 2006
ISBN: 978-0809556601
354 pages
$2.99 Kindle
$4.99 at Smashwords

Street Raised by Pearce Hansen is a basic revenge drama set in the grimly depicted environment of the East Bay area in California in the early 1980s. Oakland street hood, Speedy, gets released from a prison in the northern part of the state, shoeless. He ventures home, encountering a few adventures and picking up a kitten along the way. In a long opening chapter, we see the complex mix of violence and compassion that makes up the protagonist’s character. Once home, Speedy reunites with his younger brother, Willy, who’s become a crack addict during Speedy’s long incarceration.

Willy’s wretched descent prompts Speedy to enlist a friend, Fat Bob, who bounces at seedy bars, to liberate Willy from his addiction and squalid residence. The three then conspire to vanquish a gang of Mexicans who recently killed two other friends in brutal fashion. These Mexicans are sitting on a pile of money too, so there’s profit as well as revenge motivating this action. Stealing from criminals is essentially a victimless crime, or at least one that makes it easier for the reader to root for Speedy and his gang. Despite Speedy’s inherently criminal nature, he has a desire to get off the streets and live a conventional life, one in which he can take care of his kitten and Carmel, a woman he falls in love with. Other encounters with street characters inhibit his goal. Violence and tragedy ensues, much of it grisly, along with a deliciously graphic tour of Oakland.

The Oakland setting often steals the show but this is Speedy’s story. A nasty fellow portrayed heroically, larger than life. He almost instantly  attracts enmity and admiration from other characters, such as the creepy and underutilized Ghost, and his lover, Carmel. The unlikely quickness of these bonds could have worked had it not been for the novel’s slow pace. The sheer volume of back story and reflection of so many characters diluted the inherent and delightful viciousness of the story.

The pace also suffered from the frequency and irrelevancy of many authorial intrusions. An extreme example is when Speedy and Carmel are holed up in motel, trying to evade a gang chasing them. It’s a tense situation but for some reason the action is interrupted with several paragraphs describing what’s on television. The surprisingly high number of proofing errors puzzled me considering a much briefer version of this book was published over five years ago.

Street Raised was a frustrating read for me. It was just way too long. It’s unfortunate because there is entertainment value here, particularly the comprehensive and uncompromising depiction of Oakland, which was often surreally riveting, like a mural.

The apartment itself was a den of skinheads and bootwomen, at least a dozen lounging about  with beers and cigarettes in their hands. Butts and empty bottles and cans littered the floor; decks and longboards stood lined against the wall. The walls were festooned with flyers for punk shows, numberless out-of-date banners for past hardcore gigs around the Bay, for local bands like Fang and Urban Assault, Bad Posture or Flipper. There were holes punched in the walls, which were covered with graffiti, mainly three-legged swastikas, racist comments, spray painted obscenities and declarations such as ‘Bay Area Skinz Rule!’ A bootwoman with a lit cigarette dangling from her mouth was cooking food bank spaghetti at the kitchenette in the far back corner; an overflowing garbage can stood next to her.

The aura exuded by such passages is the book’s biggest strength, just as Oakland is its best character. I liked how the author didn’t hold back on the graphic violence, which was never gratuitous. Within Street Raised there is a gritty jewel of a novel that needs to come out, a rough diamond that needs a great deal of cutting and a significant amount of polishing to bring out its shine.

The contest is now closed. The Winner will be announced tomorrow, but please read the review — this is an excellent book and you’ll be able to purchase it come December 6, 2011

We’re pleased to announce a giveaway of a signed Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of Jane Kindred’s The Fallen Queen giving YOU the chance to win it before you can buy it. All you have to do is comment on this post before midnight (PST) Black Friday (11/25/11) and you have a chance to win this amazing book. Rules: One entry per person, United States and Canada only. The winner will be selected using Random.org and announced on 11/26/11.

The Fallen Queen
The House of Arkhangel’sk
by Jane Kindred
Entangled Publishing
Copyright © December 2011
ISBN: 978-1937044534
eBook ISBN: 978-1937044527
Paperback $16.99
342 pages

About:

Heaven can go to hell.

Until her cousin slaughtered the supernal family, Anazakia’s father ruled the Heavens, governing noble Host and Fallen peasants alike. Now Anazakia is the last grand duchess of the House of Arkhangel’sk, and all she wants is to stay alive.

Hunted by Seraph assassins, Anazakia flees Heaven with two Fallen thieves–fire demon Vasily and air demon Belphagor, each with their own nefarious agenda–who hide her in the world of Man. The line between vice and virtue soon blurs, and when Belphagor is imprisoned, the unexpected passion of Vasily warms her through the Russian winter.

Heaven seems a distant dream, but when Anazakia learns the truth behind the celestial coup, she will have to return to fight for the throne–even if it means saving the man who murdered everyone she loved.

Review

Epic Fantasy, Action, Adventure, Romance, Angels, Demons, Heaven and Earth. I have been waiting for a chance to read The Fallen Queen for quite some time now. I’ve had the privilege of catching some snippets of the book while playing on Twitter, and the concept intrigued me, so I jumped at the chance to get my hands on an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of the book. The Fallen Queen is full of angels and demons, but not in the way you might think. Jane Kindred has taken the story of Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia and the fall of Imperial Russia and blended it with fantasy, with current day Heaven being a reflection of the happenings of Russia, 1918, down to the rumors of the escape of Anastasia. The result is an engaging tale which takes the reader through a maze of political intrigue, assassinations, and romance.

The book opens in the realm of Heaven with the Grand Duchess Anazakia Helisonovna of the House of Arkhangel’sk, a mere seventeen-year-old, playing against a demon in a game of chance at a wingcasting table in Raqia — a city of the Fallen in Heaven, and home to several dens of iniquity, such as the Brimstone where our Angel gambled her crystals away. And just like that — I was hooked. Raqia, the Brimstone, just the names set the atmosphere for what was to come. And opening with an Angel at a wingcasting table? Superb.

Our Angel, Anazakia, is a rather self-absorbed person at the beginning of the book, looking for fun and adventure, and didn’t realize she had brought on more adventure than she could handle. Using a form of magic, she split her essence, so there was a version of herself left at home to attend balls, or dinners, things that Anazakia herself would find boring, while the real Anazakia would sneak out of the palace and head to Raqia to experience life.

It is during one of these forays to Raqia when she finds herself at the wingcasting table facing the demon Belphagor, and is gambling away her crystals while her family is violently slain by her cousin Kae — including the shade of herself.

And lest you think that since this book is about Angels and Demons there are religious overtones to it — there are not. Angels are the Host and reflective of nobility and the supernal (imperial) family. Demons represent the peasant class. And in this peasant class is Belphagor, The Prince of Tricks, and the hero of the piece. Here is Anazakia’s description of Belphagor upon their first meeting:

Raqia’s reigning prince that night was a dark-haired demon with eyes as sharp as the waxed points of his hair. He played his hand as cool as you please and barely seemed to notice me, but he put nearly every card I discarded into play with his own and soon had me hemorrhaging both cards and crystal.
Smoke burned my eyes as the demon nursed his cigar in a deliberate distraction. When he took it between his fingers, I could not help following with my eyes. Beneath the tattered lace of his cuffs, black crosses and diamonds, interlaced with characters of an unfamiliar alphabet, braced his fingers between the knuckles like rings made of ink.

Kindred hooks the reader from the start and takes them on a wild chase from Heaven to the terrestrial plane of man, with the Grand Duchess in the care of two demons as she flees for her life. A brilliantly executed story and one any fantasy lover must read. Jane Kindred is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors and would highly recommend you read The Devil’s Garden, a novella by Kindred which we reviewed in August while waiting for the release on December 6th of The Fallen Queen.

Don’t forget to leave a comment for the chance to win the ARC of The Fallen Queen.

When Dan Morgan (code name Cobra), a former Black Ops contractor, is asked to come out of retirement to help the CIA with a mission, he is hesitant at first.  But when he learns a former comrade (code name Cougar) has been killed and has left a coded message that only Cobra can decipher, he jumps on board.

Like all Black Ops, Morgan has to leave his family behind and cannot give them any information on where he is going or what operation he’s involved in. Not only is his life at stake, but the long term consequences could be detrimental to our country’s freedom and thousands of Americans.

Morgan, and the reader, soon finds themselves in Afghanistan wrapped up in numerous missions of spying and espionage from hostage rescue to counter terrorism. Set across three continents and spanning the late 1960s through 2001, readers are in for quite a thrill ride.

This is Maloney’s first book, and much of it is based on actual eye-witness accounts that took place while the author served in the army in 1966.  He was recruited by a special U.S. agency to receive highly specialized Black Ops training. He left his career in 2001 and after sharing some of his experiences (although some are still too top secret to be discussed) with friends and loved ones, he was encouraged to write this book.

Termination Orders is indeed fiction, but the story lines are based on real life, first hand experiences from Maloney’s past.  If you’ve ever wondered about those secret government operations that keep conspiracy theorists guessing and occasionally stir up the headlines, then this book will feed your curiosity a five course meal.

There is very little in the military genre that I will pick up and read.  It does not hold my attention at all.  However, I gave Maloney’s book a try simply because it was a fictional account based on real stories.  I was not disappointed.  There’s enough history and war here to satisfy military buffs, and enough action and adventure and intrigue for the rest of us.

It’s not often I have the pleasure of reviewing a book prior to release, so I’m especially honored to have the opportunity to review Born To Be A Dragon the day before it launches.

For someone who loves the children’s through young adult market, books written for a middle grade audience are some of the most fun to read. The target audience is always ready to suspend disbelief and allow their imaginations full reign and yet are looking for some more complex issues to encounter between the pages. As a child, I loved to lose myself in a book. To enter the world the author devised and play the words on the page like a movie in my head… and, I’ll admit it, I still do. For those moments, the characters are friends and foes, and their world becomes real.

Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup. ~ Anonymous Dragon

I love this quote — it makes me giggle every time I read it. Jacobs has the quote on the title page of the book, and it gives us the flavor for what is to come. Deglan is a ten-year-old hatchling, who has not yet taken part in the Rising Ceremony. The Rising Ceremony causes Deglan some concern because his mark, which every dragon receives at birth, has been changing…and it’s not supposed to. Deglan is afraid because Lord Edric has been searching for the dragon of legend for as long as Deglan can remember, and the dragon of legend has a mark in the shape of a dragon, instead of the more usual crescent or star. Which is exactly what Deglan’s mark has morphed into. Could he be the dragon Lord Edric has been seeking? And if Lord Edric discovers his mark at the Rising Ceremony, will his family be banished… or worse?

Meia, is a ten-year-old foster child who has been bounced from family to family, mainly because of her dreams and nightmares about dragons, until she has finally been placed with a family who take her obsession in stride. The Bensens encourage Meia to talk about her dreams, instead of thinking she is weird. Meia is a daydreamer, and has trouble focusing in class sometimes because her mind takes her on flights of fancy… on the back of a blue dragon.

Deglan and Meia both have their part to fulfill the legend centuries old. An unlikely alliance to say the least, but one that takes us on a roller-coaster ride — exciting from the morphing of the mark to the thrilling conclusion.

Born To Be A Dragon is a delightful read and has almost as many twists and turns as Meia has freckles on her nose. In her debut novel, Eisley Jacobs truly gets into the ten-year-old mindset and has written the book in alternating points of view. So you get the perspective of Deglan and Meia throughout and their different takes on the circumstances as they unfold. This makes it a great read for both boys and girls because they each have a main character to identify with. Each of the characters jump off the page, whether their part is large or small, even down to Philip the garden gnome. In addition, Jacobs has artwork starting each chapter, drawn by satisfied readers who are eagerly awaiting the next book in the series. Charming.

Born To Be A Dragon will be available for purchase July 20, 2011, or you can pre-order, by selecting the link here. A fun-filled story for dragon-lovers everywhere.

False Refuge
By Steve Anderson
Copyright © 2010
207 pages
$0.99 at Kindle and Smashwords

Several weeks ago, a post on Henry Baum’s Self Publishing Review blog offered a succinct perspective on quality in self-publishing, questioning whether readers would care or even notice so-called gatekeeper issues when they’re paying less than a buck for an E-Book. False Refuge by Steven Anderson is an under-a-buck book and the post made me pause to consider whether, as a reviewer, I ought to consider the price in reviewing this novel and be more forgiving about any copyediting issues I might come across.

Alex Swenson has gone AWOL and wants to stay gone. He’s found work in a coffee shop in Kona, under an assumed name, pondering his future. When he foils a robbery at the coffee shop, the threat of exposure via heroism compels him to seek out a semi-secret entity called Krieger Estates. He’s heard they’ll help conscientious objectors like him forge new identities. It’s a strong opening putting our protagonist on the run and into action, which he does with dramatically satisfying desperation.

He solicits the aid and company of a local girl, Kanini, whose history of troubles with the law would make her benefit from a new identity too. Better yet, her local knowledge can help him penetrate Krieger Estates. Together they join the organization—a legitimate resort on the surface—taking menial jobs to gain the trust of its operators. This takes some time, time during which they learn more about this refuge. Troubling things. It turns out Krieger Estates is much more than a sanctuary and that Alex’s military skills will be put to undetermined but certainly questionable uses. For Alex this means all he’s done is trade one military organization for another. Alas, Alex’s nosiness draws the wary attention of his hosts.

Alex’s friend on the outside, Jerry Bateman, is worried about his AWOL buddy. Jerry correctly guesses Alex would head to Hawaii but the clues he finds lead to a dead end. Some time later, while preparing for a mission to Iraq, Jerry gets a cryptic email from Alex. Jerry returns to Hawaii, using the last few days of leave, and finds Krieger Estates, essentially following the path Alex and Kanini took. Kanini knows who Jerry is and makes contact. Through discrete conversations, she tells him that Alex has been taken away somewhere. Jerry and Kanini team up then to locate Alex and save him.  But for Jerry, saving Alex will still put him in a dilemma, as he’d be duty-bound to report his friend to the military authorities.

Throughout, many conversations and debates take place between the three main characters, and to a lesser extent between them and their adversaries, about war, guns, politics, and other weighty topics. The perspectives of each character are often idealistic and simplistic but in using close third-person, the author does a good job of associating them with the character and distancing them from himself. This prevents the book from becoming a political statement and keeps it as a character-driven thriller. Alex’s naivety comes across as sincere and believable. I’d bet there are many men in the armed forces who share his views.

Things do sag though in the chapters between Alex’s escape from the coffee shop and the ending when all three try to escape their dire situation. The descriptions, most notably of people and their attire and physical characteristics, are often too long. The use of dialogue for exposition occurs more than I would like to see. Characters, particularly the protagonist’s friend, Jerry Batemen, are too passive for too long stretches of interior monologues of back-story and personal theories. Of lesser importance, but still notable, the inconsistent use of the past perfect and commas. All fixable issues through more diligent copyediting.

It’s when the characters are in action that the writing picks up. Especially, as mentioned above, when they’re on the move in the Hawaiian countryside, the descriptions of which fit the pace of the story.

They passed the marina and the airport and the lush greens of Kona gave way to the bleak lava-flow landscape of the Kohala Coast. This was farther than he’d traveled since he arrived over seven months ago. The wind at his half rolled-down window became a rushing blast. They could see the stars in the clear sky. And the traffic thinned out, the rental sedans giving way to a few worn island pickups and compacts. Along this stretch of coast were some pristine and remote beaches, if you knew the right narrow rocky trail to take among the many that snaked in and out of the scrawny, wind-battered trees and brushes that soldiered on between the lava flows.

I have never been to Hawaii, but after reading this book, I feel I have in a way. Another passage later on illustrates this further, as well as a fine blending of dialogue and action I wish I had read more of.

Bateman waved them up. “This isn’t even the worst of it,” Kanani added as they climbed. “Two types of lava on da Big Island — the pahoehoe, and the ‘a’a.  Pahoehoe flows are smooth and wavy surfaces, like this. But the ‘a’a? All broken up. Jagged, loose, rocky piles of hell. Is junk, brah. This flow got choke ‘a’a. And up ahead, too.”

Bateman clambered over to them and led them onward. “It’s like a fucking obstacle course up here,” he panted, “so be careful.” He had a bloody scrape on his knee. Kanani made a
clicking sound at that.

“This lava can be more friend than foe,” Alex said. “No ATV could traverse this, not with this goddamn ‘a’a lava.”

“True,” Bateman said. “But that chopper decides to head this way now with us out in the open we’re fucked.”

They scrambled across the black river of slabs, zigzagging to avoid the spans of ‘a’a rock that came up fast like streams of mountain water and then there were the crevices, their usual half hour a mile taking more like an hour. Then it was all ‘a’a and it was like hiking across a bed of coral. The brittle sharp chunks wobbled and shattered and yards of them shifted under their feet. Ankles rolled, palms scraped. After an hour of it they could smell the brown grass of the saddle. Almost there. Behind them the chopper hovered nearer, high in the sky like a second sun.

If the entire book had been handled with the same skill consistently throughout—and the author is certainly capable of doing so—then the price never would have been a consideration for me.

I have to say then that as a 99-cent product, False Refuge offers decent value and will find an audience. Overall, it’s a well-composed story with somewhat interesting characters and dramatic possibility amidst a lush setting. Its issues are of the kind many readers wouldn’t consciously notice, not the glaring grammatical ones of the example cited in the SPR post. But they still required mentioning.

The Noble Pirates
By R. L. Jean
Copyright © 2010
220 pages
$2.99 Kindle at Amazon.com

Just as Sabrina Grainger falls off a party boat into the Caribbean in 2009, so the reader is dropped right into the action of The Noble Pirates, and R. L. Jean (a.k.a. Fiction Chick) makes the reader and her protagonist fend for themselves. Much easier for the reader who is aided by the accomplished storytelling than for poor Sabrina Grainger—a mother, wife, and attorney—whose plunge sinks her nearly three centuries into the world of pirates. None other than the infamous Edward England and his crew of sea rovers fish her out of the sea. At first she believes it all to be a hoax, that her awful smelling rescuers are actors in some kind of role-play. But she finds them as bewildered by her as she is by them.

But she’s the one who must adapt and she does, in highly entertaining fashion, for a good 200 pages or so. Only the time travel resolution at the end offers any disappointment in its incongruity to all that comes before. On its own, the ending is fine, it just lacks the energy of the rest.

And the rest is very good.

England humors her claims to be from the future and takes her to Nassau. However, the Nassau of 1718 does not view women the same way as that of 2009, and Sabrina struggles in her efforts to reverse her situation. Nothing presents itself and so, seeing no alternative, Sabrina lobbies England to let her join him on a pirating venture to Africa. She develops some affection for England but he finds her a nuisance. He hands her over to the honest Captain of a slaver ship, Howel Davis, with whom Sabrina spends most of the rest of the story and for whom she develops a stronger attraction.

Two subordinates, Blain and Taylor, betray Davis and have him jailed for mutiny, leaving Sabrina on her own. When Davis is freed due to a lack of evidence, he is a bitter man and determines he’d be better off, “on the account,” and heads to Nassau to begin his notorious pirating career. Sabrina signs on with a sister ship, follows him to Nassau, and from there doggedly clings to Davis because by now she’s in love with the man. Not only that, she hopes to save his life, which she knows will end in a matter of months.

For when she fell in, Sabrina had a backpack that contained two books, a pirate romance and a history of pirates entitled, Rovers of the Sea. The latter includes biographies of England, Davis, and others she meets. It also tells the time and place of Davis’s death. Even at the risk of affecting the future, she wants to save him from that. Her persistence pays off when he incorporates her into his pillaging and plundering. She apprises him of what she knows—and he believes her story—but that still can’t stop him from captaining his ship toward his place of recorded death. They encounter Blain and Taylor again—another event foretold in the history book—but now Sabrina knows more about how she can get back to 2009. At this point she faces some difficult choices.

The first-person narrative of a modern woman in 1718 justifies the use of idioms from today’s culture, allowing for less self-conscious writing. It also minimizes the danger of anachronisms. This is a clever thing to do, from an author’s standpoint, as it subtly avoids another danger, that of the material becoming dated. More importantly, the blend pays off in both humor and clarity, as in the following:

The first-person narrative of a modern woman in 1718 justifies the use of idioms from today’s culture, allowing for less self-conscious writing. It also minimizes the danger of anachronisms. This is a clever thing to do, from an author’s standpoint, as it subtly avoids another danger, that of the material becoming dated. More importantly, the blend pays off in both humor and clarity, as in the following:England set his pipe down carefully, knitting his brow. “Because we found this floating with ye.” From beneath the table, the captain withdrew my backpack. As I gasped, he continued, “I didn’t let anyone look inside, save myself and my quartermaster, Jameson… It made him mighty wary of ye, lass, and angry with me when I protected ye.”

I took the backpack eagerly from him, bubbling with excitement. Something from my life, something from the sane world… I unzipped it – it had definitely seen better days – and immediately began fishing for my Blackberry. I pulled it out joyfully, and on a whim tried to turn it on. Nice try, Sabrina. Then I went through the other items quickly: my iPod, also shot to hell; a blister pack of Dramamine for motion sickness (it sure would have been nice to have this a little while ago); my friend Tanya’s makeup bag, most of the items inside in good condition, including three multi-colored, ribbed condoms (Christ, what had Captain England thought of that? At least they were still in their packaging); Sky’s romance, most of it water-logged and illegible (thank God); another of Sky’s books, Rovers of the Sea, still fairly legible since it was still wrapped in a Barnes & Noble bag; a couple bikinis and cover-ups; and finally, our wallets. I tore mine open, pulling out a picture of Sophie and clutching it tightly, the tears starting to well up.

Sabrina carries the narrative well, eschewing sentimentality for a gritty, realistic portrayal of the pirate era she’s landed in. I particularly liked how, soon after this passage, Sabrina casts off her friend’s pirate romance as useless, as if giving a cue to the reader saying, no, this story isn’t going to be like one of those. However, Sabrina Grainger is not just a keen observer with a captivating voice. “I did not know what those choices were, and I could not let that stop me from doing something,” she states at one point. The mantra of the quintessential protagonist.

The supporting characters are great too, capable of cheerful surprises and nasty whims. Whenever one is tempted to view Howel Davis as a Jack Sparrow, he does something cruel and un-Disney-ish. Eventually, I associated him more with Odysseus for his cunning and elaborate schemes.

What should not go unappreciated in the enjoyment of the story is the depth of research. The casual lightness of the prose could make that happen in that the products of the research are neatly woven into the story. It’s clear great effort and care has gone into making The Noble Pirates as accurate and realistic as possible. Therefore one easily forgives the plot devices and grants suspension of disbelief in exchange for sharing Sabrina Grainger’s plunge.

Well done.

Originally published with BookSurge in 2008, Nick Nolan’s Double Bound was just republished as part of the AmazonEncore program.  AE is where Amazon.com recognizes books that may have been overlooked but may have great potential, and then partner with the authors to re-release them and help market them better to readers.  It obviously is working, or at least for Nick Nolan, because I would probably not have read his book otherwise.  Double Bound is a sequel to his first book, Strings Attached, which was republished with AmazonEncore earlier this year.

As the book opens we meet Arthur, a young homosexual man who had a high school romance with another “questioning young man” named Jonathan, who ended up breaking his heart.  Lacking the support of his family, Arthur considers killing himself, but joins the armed services instead. Arthur’s second romance comes to an abrupt ending because of the Twin Towers tragedy, while Arthur is serving his country as a strong-willed marine. After being discharged, his skills land him a career with the FBI, but he opts for a security guard position with a wealthy family, who also happens to be the family of his first love, Jonathan, who had gone on to live a “straight” life and is now deceased.

Jonathan’s son, Jeremy, lives with his wealthy aunt, Katharine, who sends Jeremy to survey an island resort off the coast of Brazil that she’s invested in. Accompanying him is Carlo, his lover, and Arthur as bodyguard, who has suddenly found himself attracted to Jeremy despite him being half Arthur’s age.  The three of them quickly become wrapped up in a kidnapping plot against Jeremy set into motion by the island owner, Fabiano, who is also their biggest Brazilian investor.  Fabiano woos his guests with the resort’s luxuries, but has other plans in mind which could ultimately lead to death. Along the way, Carlo reconnects with an estranged cousin who is living in a Brazilian slum, and who helps reveal the dirty truth about Fabiano; and Jeremy and Arthur’s true feelings about each other are brought to light.

I’ve never come across a good “gay” mystery or thriller that I could connect with in some way without stereotypical characters or predictable plot lines getting in the way. I fully admit that I expected Nolan’s book to fall into that category after I was about fifty pages in, but as I continued to read I found myself not being able to put the book down because I was eager to see what direction it was taking.  Nolan’s characters are definitely multi-layered and complex, which made them feel believable to me.  He’s breathed an array of real life emotions, heart ache, and strength into each of them, particularly Arthur. The author also builds his plot off heavy use of the Portuguese language (there’s a pages of translations in the back), and the book is rich in Brazilian culture and history, including an ancient blood letting ceremony which was just downright scary. Feeding off of these traits definitely gives the book a new and lively feel for the genre, and puts the characters in  “real” and believable situations.

As for the book itself, I like the fun cartoon cover.  AmazonEncore obviously gave it a makeover, and used the same type of artwork on Nolan’s first book. In the Author’s Notes, Nolan explains that he used the Jack and the Beanstalk fairytale as a metaphor for the story, just as he used Pinocchio in Strings Attached. I didn’t really get a sense of this, and it probably never would have come across to me had he not explained it, but I’m glad he did because otherwise the beanstalk on the cover would not have made any sense to me. Though not obvious, as an author I certainly appreciate such nuances that authors write into their stories, whether it be blatantly obvious or hidden  just for personal reasons. I’ve definitely done it myself.

At over 300 pages of story, the fifty-two chapters were often just a few pages long which I think is an important quality for “mystery-type” books.  Or at least it definitely helps to keep the story moving along.  The interior is flawless, and I only noticed one typo, but I was reading an advanced readers copy so we probably can’t even count that.   All in all, I’d say AmazonEncore produces nice work and I’m glad to see they’ve included gay fiction in their mix , but this is the first book I’ve read from them.  And it has certainly helped Nick Nolan gain exposure.  Strings Attached already has 79 reviews and is ranked at 4 stars; Double Bound has 28 reviews and is also ranked at 4 stars.  I much deserved 4 stars I might add.

Check back tomorrow for my interview with Nick himself.

Visit Nick online!

There’s good confused, and there’s bad confused. As I read John C. Stipa’s No Greater Sacrifice, I was good confused. If you’ve read any of the Dan Brown novels you know the confused I’m talked about, where the characters leap to the right conclusion time and again when presented with sketchy puzzles while you’re left in the dust.

It helps that our heroes are super-hot Renee D’Arcadia, an archeologist running from her leukemia diagnosis and David Arturo, ex-special forces history professor running from his past. They’re good at these puzzles where I would still be trying to figure out the first one. When they are summoned to France for the reading of a will, they are given the first few pieces and thrust into a circle of ne’er-do-wells who, as fate and plot development would have it, are trying to give them just enough rope to hang themselves.

As we learn more about our protagonists, we discover that they have met before and the meetings were not necessarily good ones. This time, however, romance blossoms as they must lean on each other to solve the puzzles and find the next clue. A small but strong supporting cast gives them assistance in sorting through the centuries-old mystery. We are dragged along into under-ground caverns, crypts, and cathedrals as the pieces slowly start to fall in place.

Stipa’s dialogue is crisp and the pacing of the novel is unrelenting. It bogs slightly as the heroes gather to work through most of the ‘thinky’ parts of the puzzle, then speeds off again once we’re given enough pseudo-history to explain why they’re getting shot at, stabbed, and chased. While the action parts are fast paced and well described, the characters also dive into their emotions and motivations with dialogue such as this:

David rocked back and rested on his heels. “People are raised thinking relationships require a certain level of deception, as if it’s some sort of psychological game. And they think it’s normal! We learn the ploys and tricks as early as middle school. Girls play hard to get, boys tease them instead of showing emotion. I never got it. I wasn’t smart enough to keep up with a lie. It was easier to be truthful.”

This slow building of sexual tension between Renee and David doesn’t detract from the story. When a misunderstanding temporarily divides them, they (and we) quickly realize that they are much better together as a team. Still, the hook of this book is the action and that is where Stipa’s writing shines. As the heroes close in on their final objective they are being pursued by a killer and we get this description as he climbs across a rope with bleeding hands in chase:

Dropping to the ground, he braved a glimpse at the ragged peels of skin and shredded rope mixed with dirt and blood. He dabbed the seeping mess against his trousers. Pulling out his pistol, he stole into the chamber and hid below one of the outer stones. The man and woman were talking, something about a Telesterion. He closed his eyes and said a silent prayer. ‘For the Lord has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place.’ Like fog creeping in a cemetery, he moved to the inner circle.

Technically, the book was a treat. Well edited with great cover art and some helpful illustrations inside (I would have loved to have even more), it feels like a polished and finished piece. More importantly, I enjoyed the writing and the story of No Greater Sacrifice. Even if most of the history and puzzles left me confused, it was a good confused. The good guys solve the puzzle, prevail over the bad guys, and find each other in the process. In the end, that’s what a good romantic thriller is all about.

Paperback Cover

T’Aragam
By Jack W. Regan
CreateSpace (April 2009)
ISBN: 978-1442114593
252 pages
$11.95 Paperback
$ 0.99 Amazon Kindle

Jack Regan captured me from the get go with his young adult fantasy T’Aragam, which is aimed at the tween age group (9-13). What was it that captured me and made me want to keep turning the pages? A cheese obsessed medgekin, named Gramkin Truly. I am a cheese lover, and couldn’t resist phrases such as: “I have a high cheese requirement.” and “In the name of Gouda.”

T’Aragam opens with the medgekin, Gramkin, running through the woods toward Ransome Hall on an important mission to obtain cheese to supply for the annual medgekin games. It is the first time he has been in charge of supplying the cheese, and because of the aforementioned cheese requirement, Gramkin had eaten the medgekin supply. He was hoping to acquire some cheese from Ransome Hall as the medgekin games had been played for a millennium with no lack of cheese and he would be disgraced should he fail to provide. While he is running through the woods, and being laughed at by chucklebugs when he falls, he becomes alarmed as it appears that someone is following him. On the verge of panicking, Gramkin runs in to Zohar, a great wizard, who is also on the way to Ransome Hall to deliver news of disaster which approaches T’Aragam.

Kindle Cover

T’Aragam takes the reader on a fast paced adventure beginning with Ransome Hall being attacked by phantors. During the attack, thirteen-year-old Max Ransome, watches his father, Lord Ransome, die because Max disobeyed his father’s instructions to stay in the armory. Orphaned and a pawn in a game whose stakes he did not fully understand, Max has to save T’Aragam from destruction. Assisted by the wizard, Zohar, and the medgekin, Gramkin, Max travels beyond the confines of Ransome Hall for the first time in his life. He finds himself in battle against Zohar’s evil wizard brother, Zadok, who was behind the phantor attack on Ransome Hall. Zadok is determined not to stop until the kingdom and all it contains is his.

Regan pens an adventuresome tale sure to capture a reader’s imagination. I laughed out loud through much of the book, as the action is interspersed with humor. What tween could resist such names as Lord Stench from Dankwater, or the pirate Captain Baggywrinkle? Or how about monsters named Gloom and Doom? We also meet the viscious equuraptor named, Dresden, and the sea monster named, Bob. In fact, the humor in the piece is taken to such a degree that I would classify this book as a fantasy parody or spoof. A prime example of this is the following, which takes place at the Luscious Lemur:

    Leading the way inside, Zohar shut the door behind them and bolted it. A hat rack stood left of the door and the wizard leaned his staff against it. To Max’s surprise, he then removed his beard and also hung it on the hat rack.
    “I don’t really have a flowing, white beard,” he explained, seeing their curious faces, “but it seems most people expect wizards to have them and without it people refuse to take me seriously. So I put it on whenever there’s a chance I may need to perform wizardly deeds.”

Regan’s main goal is to Get Kids Hooked On Reading by making books exciting and attractive. He believes that a “fluency in reading” is vital to a young person’s development and success, while “a love of books is one of the most valuable gifts anyone could give a child.” With T’Aragam, the first book in the Max Ransome Chronicles series, Jack W. Regan achieves his goal. A delightful, fast paced read, with enough humor to entice the most reluctant of readers, T’Aragam hits the mark.

Preview T’Aragam on Amazon.com