Monday, December 9, 2024

Dark Variations
by AJ Parnell

Vander is now an adult who is about to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania. Alexander adopted him after the end of Making Monsters (book one in this series) and raised him to be an intelligent and refined young man. Alexander has helped Vander learn more about his psychic abilities, and while he doesn’t know the full extent of Vander’s gifts, He has acted as a sort of dark mentor to Vander. Currently, Vander’s gifts are showing that when the Corpse Flower blooms the day before his graduation, the museum will open to find Vander’s dead body displayed as the latest work of art of “The Sculptor.” Somehow, in the nearly two weeks before that day, Vander must use his gifts to find a way to change the fate that Alexander has in store for him. It’s not wrong to do whatever you need to in order to ensure your own survival, no matter who else gets hurt, is it?


I read a review copy of this book which is a dark horror/thriller novel. But it is one where I almost find myself wishing for Vander to succeed. His life in Africa before being adopted and raised by a serial killer was a very miserable time. He was abused and his own father tried to sell him for sexual use to the local sheriff. A life like that is one that would cause anyone to have difficulty trusting others. And with a psychic gift that allows him to see the outcome once a decision has been made, he feels that he has few viable options for saving his own life, And those all lead him down their own dark pathways.


The story is very well written and kept me reading and wanting to know how it would end, and whether or not Vander would survive or be murdered. And as I said, while much of it is a dark tale that is not a happy one, I kept hoping that Vander would find a different way out of his predicament, one that doesn’t involve him becoming as evil as the man who raised him. As I can’t tell you what happens without spoiling the story for you, you’ll just have to read this one for yourself if you want to know what happens.


I enjoyed this story, and I believe that anyone who likes horror/thriller novels with a bit of a twist to them, as well as anyone who has read the first book in this series will enjoy this book. I would recommend giving this book a try if you like dark tales where a serial killer can be both a savior to someone, and at the same time still be a hidden evil.



Amazon requires me to state that I have an Amazon Associates account that I use to generate the links to the books on their website. Purchasing something after following those links will earn a few pennies for me off the sale, though as of yet I have not earned anything from my Amazon Associate links.

Monday, December 2, 2024

Apple Dumpling Murder
by Trixie Silvertale

Cyndi Claus is enjoying her life in the human world baking sweet treats for the town. Her bakery, with the building owned by her first friend in town, Ronnie, is quite popular, and when he announces that he plans on changing his will to leave the building to her, that’s when things get interesting. The next morning, he is found, by Cyndi, dead. And her fingerprints are on the murder weapon. But who was the actual murderer, and why?


This was the second book in the Christmas Catastrophe series. I read a review copy and truly enjoyed it. Ms. Silvertale, as always, has written a fun and entertaining cozy mystery. In this book, she has interwoven several holiday legends, traditions, and stories of the season and also provided us with some tasty sounding holiday dessert recipes. While I have not yet tried making any of them, they do sound delicious.


If you enjoy reading cozy mysteries, stories involving Christmas, Santa Claus and other seasonal traditions and legends, as well as any of the other books written by Ms. Silvertale, then you are very likely to enjoy this book. And if you enjoy baking, you will want to try making some of the recipes included in this book.

Monday, November 25, 2024

Alien Gothic
by S.L. Stacy

Celeste is your not-so-typical high school student. Where she lives, there have been enough UFO sightings that there is an annual sci-fi convention celebrating aliens. So what makes her so non-typical? It’s not just her Goth style choices, and the fact that her usual crowd are not the popular group, it’s that she secretly has telekinetic powers, but doesn’t know why. She just knows that it’s something that must be kept secret. What she doesn’t know is that not only.is she part alien, but that she’s not the only one in the school.


I read a review copy of this fun young adult story. There are numerous pop culture references throughout the story, including alien/sci-fi TV shows and popular band references that show the author was familiar with both subjects and not simply naming ones that were popular at the time. The story involves a murder, multiple alien races, first love romances, and friends vs rival relationships. Overall, I found it very entertaining and fun to read. The characters' personalities come through very clearly, as do the reasons why they act the way they do. We get to see a range of teenage emotions from anger and depression to first love and heartbreak. And the plot of the story is not simply surrounding aliens, as there is also a murder that the main characters seem determined to try and solve themselves.


All in all, It was a fun first book in a new series, and I look forward to getting to read the next book in this series to find out what happens next. If you enjoy reading entertaining young adult stories involving high school students, aliens, murder, and music, I think you will enjoy this one. It may have its serious moments, but it is also quite entertaining.


Amazon requires me to state that I have an Amazon Associates account that I use to generate the links to the books on their website. Purchasing something after following those links will earn a few pennies for me off the sale, though as of yet I have not earned anything from my Amazon Associate links.

Monday, November 18, 2024

Witch of the Golden Veil
by Maria DeVivo

Alex DeVille is a reporter who got her first break reporting on a murder in the Satanic Panic era. Since then, all of her assignments have involved a paranormal and quite often a satanic connection. She wants to report on bigger stories, preferably some that don’t include satanic, occult, or paranormal elements, but that is what she is currently known and recognized for. When she gets the chance to secretly report on a group of nuns performing unauthorized exorcisms in In Italy, she jumps on it. Using some vacation time, she doesn’t tell her boss what she is up to, hoping that this story will be her big break and allow her to move to bigger stories that are not just more of the same: small occult-related stories. After all, demon possession isn’t real. It’s just someone who is mentally ill but has not properly been diagnosed as such, right?


I read a review copy of this book, and love how it ties in with the previous stories in this series. This is the fifth book in this series and I do recommend reading the previous books before this one as I think it adds something when you see how each book ties in with the other books in the series. Yes, you would likely still enjoy this one even without having read the previous books, but reading them in order definitely adds to the complexity of the overall story arc.


It was interesting reading this book and seeing the character be very subtly manipulated, and I’m not entirely certain if she ever even realized it was happening. This story does involve previous incarnations of several of the characters, and as such, I’m uncertain how much of what I call manipulation was actually the knowledge from their previous lives coming through as they were made aware of who they used to be, and what they saw as their purpose in the world.


This is a great series for those who enjoy dark tales involving occult forces. This book, as it did in book one, takes place in the 1980s, but as the main characters are not high school students, I did not expect there to be references to some of what I remember as a teenager growing up during that era, so I did not miss their exclusion in this book. I did enjoy the reference to phone cords, making it clear that the characters were not using mobile phones (which were only beginning to be available in the late 1980s.) And overall, I believe that the author did a very good job of portraying the time period accurately.


If you enjoy horror stories involving the occult, demonic forces, and the paranormal incidents set during in the 1980s, then I believe you will enjoy this book. But be warned, it does contain a fair amount of graphic sex, violence, murder, gore, drugs, alcohol, and even a rape. (I call it rape because while the character appeared to be a partially willing participant, her mind was not under her own control when it happened.) So this is definitely not a book meant for younger readers.


Amazon requires me to state that I have an Amazon Associates account that I use to generate the links to the books on their website. Purchasing something after following those links will earn a few pennies for me off the sale, though as of yet I have not earned anything from my Amazon Associate links.

Monday, November 11, 2024

Nine Minute Diner
by Grzegorz Kunowski

This is a book that tells the same short story from the perspectives of multiple people in a small, rundown diner in a small town. It was a very interesting concept that, for me, had potential, but also had a number of problems. The entire book is about nine minutes that happened leading up to, during, and immediately after a robbery told from the individual perspectives of each person in the diner at the time of the attempted robbery.


First off, I believe the book could have used a good editor or at least a proofreader. At times, I felt that the author was trying to imitate a particular style of speaking for some of the characters, and at other times, it seemed like it may have been a poor translation from a foreign language, or maybe just needed some fine tuning.


Individually, some of the stories had the potential to be very enjoyable if expanded into a book of their own. For example, the deaf piano player was a character that intrigued me. Of course, I can’t help but wonder why a rundown small diner that seems to be in the middle of nowhere had a piano inside, as no small diner I have ever seen or heard of has space for a full-time piano player. The only exception to this that I can think of would be if it were a piano bar, which this place clearly wasn't. And this wasn't the only character that I wanted to know more about. There were a number of the characters whose stories, if expanded and broadened, would have made for much more interesting tales in their own right.


With each individual character’s story ending at the same point of time, I was often left wanting to know more about what happens to each character after the end of their part of the story. And while each character had their own individual background details about who they were and why they were there at the time of the robbery, in several cases the stories overlapped enough that they felt rather repetitive to me due to being very similar and containing nearly identical information.


I do need to warn you that within at least one character's story, there was what I believe was meant to be a date rape. Though depending on which character is telling their side of the story, it was (or wasn’t) consensual sex involving someone who wanted to have a baby and a guy trying to help her out knowing there would be no commitment between them. Honestly, the stories around this incident and the multiple characters involved left me rather confused as to what actually was or was not closer to the full truth of that story.


All in all, while some of the individual perspectives were interesting, there really is much more I would have liked to know. As it stands, I’m afraid that I'm rather confused as to the intent and purpose of the book as a whole. I think I would have enjoyed it more myself with fewer characters and more details tying them together into a longer, more complete story, or as individual short stories dealing with more about one or two of the characters and their full stories beginning earlier and running beyond the confines of this tying-together incident. As it was, there was just not enough time or space within each tale to truly feel invested in any of them, and I was left confused and wanting more.


It was interesting as a description of multiple people in a single setting. And anyone who wants to read a collection of character descriptions and short background histories would likely enjoy this book, but when I finished it, I felt like I had missed the purpose of the story as a whole. I feel like it needed something more to truly tie it all together. It was a very interesting concept, but one that, for me, needed more time and details to make it work as an individual novel.


I do hope that the author will continue to write and perhaps develop his writing with the help of a good editor and proofreader, because as I said, it was a very interesting concept and one that I had looked forward to reading. It just, in my opinion, needed something more.

Monday, November 4, 2024

Haunter's & Hauntings:
Part One (Haunter's Tale)
by J. Michael Roddy

This book is a collection of histories & stories collected from the people who create and run haunted attractions. This book encompases a variety of those who specialize in scaring us. We are given a glimpse into these people's lives, and their stories. They share why they have chosen to devote their lives to scaring others and where Their inspirations for their haunted attractions come from.


I received a review copy of this book and enjoyed reading it. I had never really thought about where the ideas for a Haunted House come, nor how much work goes into not just the design, but the amount of small details necessary to make not just something spooky, but something truly amazing and memorable.


The variety Of the tales in this book was fascinating. From simple haunted hayrides, to world record holding haunted houses, and even stories of actual haunting. If you enjoy hearing about what makes various styles of  haunted attractions so entertaining, then you'll likely enjoy this book.



Amazon Associates Statement

Amazon requires me to state that I have an Amazon Associates account that I use to generate the links to the books on their website. Purchasing something after following those links will earn a few pennies for me off the sale, though as of yet I have not earned anything from my Amazon Associate links.

Monday, October 28, 2024

The Soundtrack to your Scream
by Sarah Saedo

Joan Sclacht is a Lorian Hollow Guardian. She helps to protect the human citizens of the town from those who would hurt and cause destruction to others, as well as keeping the peace among all the citizens of the town.Those who have spent their whole lives in the town know that the founding families are not human, and many of them have spent years training and joining the Guardians to help protect people. Others have no idea about the hidden dangers lurking in the town. And when someone begins killing people, removing tongues, eyes, and then sewing  the mouth shut, it’s up to the guardians to solve these murders.


I read a review copy of this book. It was an unusual horror novel with some interesting twists. Not everything is as it seems, and that will make tracking down this mysterious murderer that much more difficult for Joan and the other Guardians. Judas Lorian, One of the immortal members of the founding families, loves Joan, but can never tell her. He is immortal, with secrets that he cannot share with her because she is human. Long ago he loved and lost a human, and he has yet to forgive himself for that tragedy. And that is only one of the complications going on in this book.


I cannot go into much detail here, as I am afraid that would cause me to accidentally give away some of what is happening, and thus spoil the story for you, but I will say that I am interested in seeing what happens in book two in this series.


If you enjoy horror stories that involve some mystery, murder, and quite a bit of gore with a touch of the supernatural attached, then I think you will likely enjoy this book.


Amazon Associates Statement

Amazon requires me to state that I have an Amazon Associates account that I use to generate the links to the books on their website. Purchasing something after following those links will earn a few pennies for me off the sale, though as of yet I have not earned anything from my Amazon Associate links.

Dark Variations <br>by AJ Parnell

Vander is now an adult who is about to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania. Alexander adopted him after the end of Making Monsters ...