Stephen Valley is a freshman in high school. Since 7th grade, he has had a crush on Monica Monroe. Ever since they were lab partners dissecting a frog, when he even let her have the honor of popping out the frog’s eyeballs, Stephen has been looking for ways to overcome his shyness and get to know Monica better. Unbeknownst to him, Monica had a similar crush on Stephen and a similar problem in overcoming her shyness. Now that Stephen’s older brother Jude had shot and killed Monica’s older sister Simone, it looks like the relationship might be going nowhere. And that is without counting the six other students Jude has killed as collateral damage.
Month: July 2017
Motion, Alchemy, and Prisms
In this selection of Hourly History books, Isaac Newton: A Life From Beginning to End, readers may discover some new facts about Newton’s thoughts and discoveries. Some readers might be inspired to dispute facts given. That’s good. It means they are inspired to read and do Google searches. I find these books valuable for my son. As a high school student, he has heard of the subject characters and events of most books in the series but may be unaware of ongoing academic controversies. These short, interesting, survey reads help to sponsor an interest in reading as the reader feels a sense of accomplishment that comes with finishing yet another book on the list.
An Excellent and Creative Set of Short Stories. Highly Recommended.
51 Sleepless Nights by Tobias Wade is a remarkable collection of short stories about what the author describes as demons, the undead, paranormal, psychopaths, spirits, aliens, and a few mysteries thrown in. That variety is what makes the collection remarkable. As I read through the stories, I looked for instances of similarities between the selections. I couldn’t find any. Which means the reader can look forward to 51 different themes. This amount of creativity is something I rarely see in literature; I see it more in stand-up comedic or political commentary.
Continue reading “An Excellent and Creative Set of Short Stories. Highly Recommended.”
A Good Story Idea But Needs Editing
ADMINISTRATIVE NOTE:
Blindsight by Nj Paige (yep, the two letter first part of the name is sometimes listed as two capitals, sometimes as noted here) is a prologue to the Maxi Brown series. The first book of the series is available as a pre-order with a delivery date of 30 Sep 2017. This prequel is available on Amazon for USD 0.99 or free through KU but I got it free through Instafreebie. Based on my read of this prequel I will not read Book One of the series. In general, I encourage the use of KU to read prequels. KU offers longer selections than Amazon free samples; I am more able to avoid accidental purchases. A download through KU is also a verified purchase which I believe supports authors.
Snowed In With Death by Ruby Loren is described as a Holly Winter mystery. I received it from Instafreebie through an author mailing list but it also available for the purchase price of FREE from Amazon. Seven detectives are scheduled to be at a resort for a detective convention. Holly is not one of the detectives but she is a detective groupie and she has won a contest by which she was invited as a guest observer at the convention. Struggling to get to the convention through a blinding snowstorm and arriving at the resort to face immediate isolation from the outside world gave Holly a feeling of uneasiness. Given that all the detectives would in turn experience either death or near death, Holly will probably rethink further convention invitations.
Magic and Mayhem is a sampler collection of short stories by Julianne Q Johnson. I found each of the stories superior to the usual offering of teasers. Proof of this is that based on my reading of these I will find and read the author’s longer works.
The Animal A girl is running through a forest pursued by a beast. She is able to cast some spells which she knows are a bit immature but if they slow the beast down and she keeps running she may be able to escape. Every spell she tries seems to slow the beast but the inevitability of her capture seems certain. Until she remembers one final trick. And her mother’s bothersome boyfriend will bother her no more. But there are consequences.
The Compassionate Serial Killer
There are several mysteries in this novel. They are set in the context of a serial killer’s exploits. Why does he kill? How does he choose his victims? The answer to the second question is of interest to the police, especially since it seems he initially committed three murders, then quit for sixteen years but now is back. The answer to the first question is more of interest to the psychiatrist but to find a true answer we have to talk to the killer. Detective Thomas Flagg is willing to talk to the killer; he has been waiting sixteen years to do so. His wife was the killer’s first victim. The only witness to the kidnapping that preceded his wife’s killing was his then two-year-old daughter Harper. She is older now and it seems the killer has come back and is looking for Harper. Detective Flagg does not intend to lose a second woman to the maniac.
Hidden in the Dark by Alyson Larrabee is a 320 page thriller. I nominated this book through the Kindle Scout program, it was accepted for publication, and I got a free advanced copy which looks as if it is treated as a verified purchase by Amazon. I think it is important for authors to get reviews on Amazon that are verified purchases. This is just one of the myriad administrative things that have not spurred my curiosity to further investigate. I just like to read books.
