Haunt

Reviewed by Author C.V. Hunt

ABOUT:

Artist Megan Nelson has never lived anywhere but the tiny Texas town in which she grew up. There is one bus, one corner store and everybody knows everybody. So when a stranger shows up, Megan is more than curious.

Adam is more than he seems: beautiful and strange. Megan soon finds herself falling in love with him as she learns who he is and where he comes from.

But being with Adam comes with a price. The closer Megan gets to Adam, the more she begins to realize that he holds a dark secret which threatens to tear apart everything she has ever known.

On top of it, Megan is plagued with guilt over her best friend, Tony. As her new love life puts a strain on their old friendship, Megan learns how love can help her overcome her terrifying circumstances and change the rest of her life

Review:

Megan is only days away from graduating high school. She is cramming for finals, and desperately trying to get her head out of the clouds so that she can pass her senior year. She longs to be an artist, but being an only child of professional parents, her future plans are still up for discussion. Spending her spare time getting lost in her paintings, or hanging with her best friend Tony, she’s just your average teen girl, as she describes herself:

I had never been very pretty. I was plain for a girl, I thought, with mousy brown hair and plain brown eyes. They weren’t even a golden brown or an exotic almost-black. Just motor oil brown. My skin was too pale because I rarely ever went outside. Texas was always either too hot or too cold for my taste. Pale blue veins showed through at my temples. I had one slightly crooked tooth. Everyone said they couldn’t tell, but it was always the first thing I noticed in photos of myself or when I looked into a mirror.

After a stress filled day, Megan makes her way to the park after sunset. In the dark, she vents her frustrations, only to find out that she isn’t alone. A beautiful stranger has been watching her from the shadows, and she nervously makes her way home.

Megan can’t seem to shake the image of the stranger and desperately tries to recreate his image on canvas. Unable to paint his likeness, she sets out to look for her muse the next day, only to find out that her average life is about to get turn upside down.

Haunt started out reading like a paranormal romance, but it slowly twists into horror story of sorts, and then back to paranormal. Personally, I love both genres, and I would recommend this to anyone in the same boat. I only found the end slightly anticlimactic, but it fit into the story well, and Amber left the reader anticipating a sequel.

The author has a wonderful way of writing. She gives you little hints to keep you captivated and wanting more. Written in first person, the author will draw back, and drop in the character’s commentary, as if Megan was sitting beside you telling you the story.

I hope to see more from Amber Delaine.

A book’s cover is its calling card and this cover is gorgeous. A lot of times I’ll read a book and go back and look at the cover and realize how the cover didn’t quite capture the story, or how there are bits of the cover which don’t quite fit with the tale inside. But in this case, I couldn’t imagine a more perfect showcase for The Devil’s Garden. Right away there is the flavor of another land, with the promise of luxurious settings, and beautiful women. And you won’t be disappointed. But, as the description for the novella reads, In the Devil’s Garden, appearances can be deceiving…

Cillian Rede put little store in the magic of gods, but devils he believed in. At seventeen summers, he’d seen more than his share. Turn left or right and you would stumble over one in the city of in’La; among the marsh grass and the fragrant trees, intrigue and corruption were as likely to grow.

From the start Jane Kindred paints a picture; sure strokes which let us know we will encounter the magic of gods, and yet devils as well. In fact, returning to this beginning after having read the book, I truly appreciate how well Kindred set up the entire story in those few opening sentences.

We meet Cillian Rede at the start of the story as a seventeen-year-old boy, but he is quickly revealed as the sacred courtesan Maiden Ume Sky. Ume Sky is sure of herself, having earned her status of one of the most elite courtesans in the Garden, while Cillian is uncomfortable with himself as a male. Ume enjoys the power she has over men, knowing exactly what look will elicit the reaction she desires. She has practiced her art for five years and takes pride in her accomplishments. But her position is about to be jeopardized by her most influential patron, and she will be thrust into the middle of political intrigue and corruption.

Jane Kindred weaves a rich tapestry in The Devil’s Garden, lush and full of fine detail. The story is full-bodied, with all the right elements of love, hate, gods, devils, corruption, and even innocence, yet packed into novella length. An excellent read and one I highly recommend.

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

First, I have to admit I haven’t read (and thoroughly enjoyed) any space opera-type Science Fiction since Restaurant At the End of the Universe which I read back in grade school.  Though I loved the movies, I’ve never been a fan of the mass market books that supported the Star Trek and Star Wars enterprises.  So, Ken McConnell’s Starstrikers was both a surprise and a pleasure for me.

Starstrikers begins with a prologue that I can just see gliding across a screen in white letters against a black sky background that’s dotted with stars, the letters getting smaller and smaller as they get farther and farther away, finally disappearing into the black.  I almost think McConnell intended the book to begin that way because the entire story itself is written in true space opera fashion, embracing the stereotypical plot lines of planets feuding with one another against a backdrop of outer galaxies and traditional space characters that are all too predictable but never boring.

We begin by learning about three worlds that are at peace. Selene has modern technology and lots of natural resources. Ursai is exotic and industrial.  Then, there’s Drexel which is covered in water and sea people. Each world is governed separately, but enjoy “free trade” with one another under an agreement known as the Federation. The Federation begins to grow and explore outside worlds, spreading itself too thin too quickly.  A group called the Alliance forms to formulate a new government to protect the ideals of the first three worlds. Military units are set up.  Meanwhile, outer threats step in to try to conquer the new worlds and a great Galactic war breaks out.

And all of this happens in just the first two pages.

What follows is an outer space war story following the fleet trying desperately to restore order, filled with fascinating and extraordinary technology and beings that were surprisingly very easy to understand.  I love a good story that challenges my imagination, but I don’t want to feel like the only reader in the room who has no idea what’s going on. McConnell writes in a matter-of-fact way which keeps the story moving and is not over emphasized with the mechanical details of his vision.

We know from the opening sequence of Star Trek that voyages like this take us “boldly where no man has gone before.”  That’s quite a big task for an author who can pull it off. And I think Ken McConnell has done it. Each chapter is introduced with a quote from one of the characters from a speech or from an interview published in the “Warfighter Journal” or from a Captain’s Autobiography. To me, this really gave the story a “larger than life” persona that expands far beyond just the story on the page.  I also liked the fact that most of the chapters are short and the action moved at a nice pace that kept me intrigued in subject matter I probably would not have read if he had not requested a review.

Kudos to Ken McConnell for creating a space saga that is both new and unique but also embraces the themes we’ve grown to love over the years in movies, books, and television.  Starstrikers is indeed out of this world!  I look forward to seeing it succeed, and to the next book in the series.

Read a preview of Starstrikers here!

I was excited to receive a hard copy of Richard Garfinkle’s Exaltations in the mail to read and review because it is the first hard cover book I’ve ever had the pleasure of seeing produced from Lulu.  The physical quality of this book is outstanding so I’d like to share a few of my own photos of it for other authors who might be considering a hardcover edition of their own work.

The cover art itself is some of the best I’ve seen for a self-published work: a current century man in the company of some historical characters that seem to be coming to life out of a mosaic.  The book’s dust jacket is a fine glossy stock despite that infamous white line at the bottom that I myself had trouble with last year, and the lack of use of space on the book’s spine.  The author and book name on the spine are tiny.  But the inside flaps are flawless and include a color photo of the author along with the publisher’s imprint and a few illustrations. Removing the jacket reveals a nicely bound black book with the author’s name and the book title embossed in gold on the spine. Such detail and quality must come with a price tag though.  The book is listed at $40.80!

The story itself follows Peter Refton who is a “hunter of human lives.”  But Peter is not a killer.  He’s a biographer and somewhat of a time traveler as he journeys to different worlds in history and literally collects the life stories of several lesser known people who might have been responsible for shaping our history books.  There’s the brave knight of reformed Charlemagne’s army, a wise man who was responsible for China’s expansion and control, a lovely sorceress, and twin warriors.

The storyline is a maddening twist of Stephen King’s The Drawing of the Three and Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.  When the tables are turned and it’s Peter’s life story that becomes the huntee, he uses his character collection to help him defeat what is known as the “Quest.” Although I’m not a big fan of reading fantasy, Garfinkle shapes a plot that is definitely worthy of the handiwork that went into putting such a beautiful book together.  He doesn’t clutter the story itself with too many minor details that end up making many stories of this genre top 500 pages.  His words are very tight and precise and push the story to its limits almost as fast as his main character moves through time…

The Story had promised them all knowledge, but he did not have all knowledge to give. The lies of the story echoed throughout the far-flung group Quest had tried to snare. They all head and knew that a voice was speaking deception to them. They would hear it and know it as a faithless spirit.

Although the book suffers from the same mistakes that haunt many self published books such as spelling, spacing, and phrasing, there is one detail to the body of text that I found distracting.  The book is divided into traditional chapters but then the chapters are also divided into various passages.  Several passages throughout the whole book are introduced with headings like [ACCEPTANCE] or [REJECTION] or [ACCEPTANCE AND REJECTION].  To me, they made me think I was actually reading a biography manuscript and that these were editor’s notes.  They served no real purpose to the story itself for me and only took up space.

With a good polish and tightening the body of the book, I think Richard Garfinkle would have a real winner with Exaltations.  Of course, there is also that heavy price tag to consider which is why I’m giving one lucky reader out there the chance to get a free copy.  If you’d like my hardcover edition of of this book, post a comment on this review.  One lucky person will be picked at random.  The winner will be announced August 31st.  U.S. Residents only.

Read the first chapter of Exaltations here!

Summerworld, by Serdar Yegulalp, is one of those books that landed on our “Pick me” tab quite a while ago.  Serdar was one of the very first authors to query his book to us here at LLBR when we were getting started, and we almost passed on it.  I’m so glad we didn’t.  It’s philosophical journey, mixed with fantasy and realism and set in a world created somewhere between our own and whatever else is out there, is one I am now happy to have taken.

First, the book’s brilliant cover deserves much attention.  I love the pale colors behind the black and white character.  Those who love Japanese art, or fans of Anime, will appreciate this book cover.  It is very fitting for this story.  Although the author offers much description of the actual place, Summerworld, it would have been nice to have a taste of such images on the cover as well just to give the reader’s imagination a hint of what the author had in mind.  But don’t get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed conjuring up my own fantastical images as I read this story.

We start with a simple letter received by Dr. Hirofumi from a patient of his who wishes to meet up with him again and catch up.  Yegulalp stuns his reader by simply stating the obvious, rather than dragging out the story and keeping you guessing.  This letter is quite disturbing because the patient who wrote it has been dead for three years.  The letter reads…

“It’s a shame we haven’t been able to see each other, but life interferes with everything we want from it anyway.”

How true is that?!

Imagine if you were to receive such a letter in the mail one day from a dead relative calling you to come and meet with them at a resort.  Would you go?  Being a psychoanalyst, Dr. Hirofumi’s interest is peaked and so he sets out to find this patient and to find out the truth.  He soon enters a world now known as Summerworld where the rules of yesterday have long been forgotten.  If you enjoy reading fantasy, the description alone of how this place came to be will definitely grab hold of your attention and not let go, not even long after you’ve finished the last page of this book.

I really enjoyed this story because it is not cluttered with lots of subplots which you have to follow.  It takes you back to a place and time when our attention spans did not require so much detail to be appeased.  This story is the journey of the main character seeking out the truth in a world that is not our own.  That’s it.  With a nice balance of dark and light, real and fantasy, hero and villian, the author has really put a lot of time and consideration into creating this amazing tale.  Not a single sentence is wasted.

Imagine taking a train to a place you’ve never been before, and when you get off that train you are in a place much like the world you’ve always imagined to be waiting for you there, but somehow things are very different.  The discovery our lead character goes through in this new place, discovering people are much the same as from the world he knew and yet they are changed, is truly beautiful.  All the while, he never loses focus on finding his lost friend who left him that curious note.

Serdar Yegulalp’s writing style is very simplistic, and yet complex…and again there’s that nice balance between oposing forces which we find as harmony in his book, and if you look around, in our world as well.  So, spend some time in Summerworld.  It is a journey worth taking.

Coming up this weekend are two more book reviews!  Do you miss Anne Rice?  Are you in love with the YA Twilight series?  Then you will not want to miss out on this next review about Vampires!  Sure, it’s an old theme that’s been worn pretty thin, but this book has bite!

Speaking of young adult tales, the other review is an escape from reality…magic, sword fights, villains, odd creatures and more!  It’s a science fiction/fantasy tale for both young and old!

We are also still searching for America!  Read the blurb down the right side of the page and submit your book today!

Happy Friday!