Book Review: Chasing the Wind (1st Person Revised) by Norma and Collin Beishir

I reviewed the original version of this book which was written in the third person. In this version, it has been re-written in the 1st person. I will re-post my original review then add to it after:

Get ready for an intense ride with Chasing the Wind. This book grabbed me from the beginning and never let go.

Dr. Lynne Raven is an archeologist on a dig in Egypt, looking for biblical artifacts from the time of the Exodus. The problem is, money is drying up and it looks like the dig is over until a saving grace comes along in the form of a man named Connor Mackenzie. He is a man shrouded in mystery and has an obvious interest in Lynne, but he also has access to what appears to be near limitless wealth. He offers to fund the dig for 5 years and provides resources they could never have dreamed of.

Lynne is approaching middle age. She is divorced and has no children, but always wanted them. Connor’s interest in her transformed when he did something that he never thought would happen: he fell in love with her. That’s when the flood gates opened.

Connor’s mysterious past comes alive. He and Lynne both discover that there is far more to his past, and their future, than either of them could have ever imagined. Pursued by a mysterious cult that seems to believe Connor is the way to jumpstart the Apocalypse, they must fight for their very survival.

Aspects of this book are actually brought about by real research. The portions of the Exodus mentioned in this book (the timing of it, the parting of the Reed Sea instead of the Red Sea, etc) are actual debates taking place with biblical scholars.

The characters also come alive with some great dialogue. Some examples:

“This whole thing is so fishy you could serve it with fries and hushpuppies.”

“You know Darcy, there’s a saying that only the good die young. If that’s true, you’re going to live forever. God doesn’t want you and the devil won’t have you for fear of a power struggle.”

I highly recommend this book. I’m looking forward to the sequel, Army of Angels.

——————————————————————————

Okay, so comparing the two, for those of you who read the first version, here’s my take. Think of the original version as having a job you love. You get paid well. You actually don’t dread going to work on Monday morning. You feel good every day when you get up. Now, with the new version, picture having that same job and getting a random raise. It’s just more of a good thing. If you haven’t read Chasing the Wind yet, get in on it now. If you read the original version, it’s worthwhile to jump back in. You get a better peek into the minds of the characters. Actually, Connor’s thought processes to me were the most revealing. The intensity of the twists and turns are pumped up as first person perspective really brings you into the characters’ emotional states as you go through. Again, especially with Connor whose mysterious past resurfaces throughout the book and he discovers something about himself that he never thought possible. This book is going to ramp you up for the sequel, which I can’t wait for.

Review: 7 Scorpions: Revolution by Mike Saxton

Reviewed by Douglas R. Cobb, of Bestsellersworld

When the action-packed, thrilling apocalyptic SF novel 7 Scorpions: Rebellion by Mike Saxton was published, it hit all of the right notes for fans of End-of-the-World-as-You-Know-It books. The novel was the first in a planned trilogy by Mike, and from the first sentence, I knew this was a series that would go down as one of the most spectacular SF trilogies ever written. Now, with 7 Scorpions: Revolution, Saxton has taken the action, suspense, and thrills of 7 Scorpions: Rebellion to a whole ‘nother level.

The evil dictator Zodiac is back, more determined than ever to complete his massive Ziggurat and to unleash his “final solution” upon the shattered remnants of humanity. He is fiendishly evil, and his exertion of control over his lobotomized minions, the Grand Army, is proof if any were needed that Zodiac will stop at nothing to accomplish his goals of world domination. The only thing that stands in Zodiac’s way are the rebels of Militia 28, but there are only so many of them in comparison to the multitudes of the Grand Army. How can they hope to defeat a seemingly invulnerable foe like Zodiac?

Militia 28, on its own, likely would not stand much of a chance against Zodiac and the Grand Army; fortunately, they are not alone in their opposition to Zodiac. The main protagonist and hero of 7 Scorpions: Rebellion is back, also. Night Viper’s heightened strength, speed, fighting skills, and mental powers makes him a very worthy opponent for Zodiac. We learn more about both Night Viper and Zodiac in 7 Scorpions: Rebellion, and other secrets are revealed, like the purpose of Project Scorpion.

Zodiac has tried to hunt down and eradicate any nuclear weapons that America’s military might have located around the country, which potentially could be used against him; but, he misses at least one. Militia 28 retrieves the nuke from it watery resting place, but then they come under immediate attack by Hellfire aircraft sent by Zodiac. Was it a set-up? Were Zodiac’s troops just waiting for Militia 28 to do all of the hard, dirty work, and then just swoop in to both get the nuke and destroy as many members of Militia 28 as they can?

The novel opens up in the ruins of New York City. Scenes shift from following the plot and action of both Militia 28 and Night Viper, and we get to witness the devastation of the Brooklyn Bridge and even the Empire State Building as Zodiac’s military might attempts to kill Night Viper and track him and Militia 28 using satellites. 7 Scorpions: Rebellion painted a bleak picture of mankind’s future; but, 7 Scorpions: Revolution is even bleaker, and reading about this apocalyptic scenario is like getting first-hand visions of Dante’s Inferno.

7 Scorpions: Revolution by Mike Saxton is full of twists & turns, and it is a satisfyingly action- packed and uber-violent sequel to the first book of the trilogy, 7 Scorpions: Rebellion. I don’t want to reveal any more about the plot as I don’t want to mention any spoilers, but I’ll just say there are lots of shocks and surprises in store for the readers and fans of the first book and the series in Saxton’s latest. I can hardly wait to read and review the third novel of the trilogy whenever it is published. If you’re a fan of SF novels depicting a dystopian future and ones full of apocalyptic visions, but offering a glimmer of hope that mankind might arise from the ashes of a ruined civilization, you should definitely check out 7 Scorpions: Revolution.

Review: Box of Rocks by Karla Telega

WARNING: Do not read this book while eating. To do so may cause you to choke to death on your own laughter.

eBook is $2.99, Paperback is $9.95

I’ll start by paying new author Karla Telega the highest form of compliment I can give: in many ways, her writing reminds me of that of bestselling author Janet Evanovich. Another reviewer has compared Maggie and Cher to Thelma and Louise, and I can see that…but to me, they’re more like Stephanie Plum and Lula for the AARP crowd

I’ve been a fan of Ms. Telega’s blog for some time now. If you haven’t yet had the privilege, check it out–you’re in for a real treat. Telega has her liver-spotted finger on the weak pulse of over-50 women everywhere.

But getting back to BOX OF ROCKS–Karla Telega has created characters that are outrageously funny but at the same time people readers can relate to–even Bear (admit it–who hasn’t had a Wile E. Coyote moment in their lives?).

As author and co-founder of upstart publisher Adoro Books, Karla Telega has published a book that’s been handled with pure professionalism, start to finish–from Karla’s exceptional writing to the fine editing skills of Martin Rus and Rosanne Dingli to the brilliant cover art of El Kartun, which would stand out anywhere. I am so pleased to see that this is just the beginning of a series!  

Review: Wildflower by Beth Muscat

This is my favorite of this author’s work, though I like everything she’s done so far.

eBook version available for $1.19

Wildflower is the story of Sandy, forty-seven, a woman whose marriage has stagnated. Her husband, a successful businessman, is away most of the time. He’s lost interest in her in spite of her efforts to maintain her looks and her body. She’s discovered he’s having an affair. Still, she remains in the marriage. 

Enter Nick, twenty years her junior and co-owner of the gym to which she belongs. In a word, he’s a hunk. Make that HUNK. He’s been more than a little aware of Sandy when she’s at the gym. They get to know each other, and romance inevitably blossoms. 

Author Beth Muscat handles the issues older women/younger men couplings face–the disapproval of family members, insecurities with regard to aging, and the failure of Sandy’s marriage, most notably–with sensitivity and realism. I’ve read several novels dealing with this sort of age-gap romance, and none of them, not even the ones authored by more experienced authors, compare to this one. 

Will Sandy and Nick overcome their own doubts and the objections of her two college-age children? I advise you to buy this book and find out, because I’m not going to tell you. It would spoil all the fun of discovering it yourself as you get to know these two through reading this wonderful novel! 

I’ve purchased all five of Beth Muscat’s novels: The Bracelet, Remember the Eyes, Nothing Without You and Infinite are the other four, the latter three being a trilogy. She’s a fine writer, good at characterization, narrative and dialogue. She’s proven her ability to develop characters throughout subsequent books. 

Five stars, without reservation. I loved it! 

Idiots Surround Us

One of my favorite novels of all time is The Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King. I read it during my Sophomore year of high school, a year that I would prefer to forget. I avoided reading at all costs back then, unless it was on a computer screen (and this was long before eBooks or eReaders). I had, for the first time, the right to choose any book for a book report for my English class. That was great. Of course, the teacher had veto power so the first few books that I picked, nice and short, he just gave me a funny look on and shook his head (if only he could see me now, attempting a PhD, he’d probably drop). I finally made my way to the Stephen King books. I knew that King was a famous writer and his subject matter did appeal to me. At the time, I was heavy into Dungeons and Dragons and I’ll admit, I picked this book simply for the word “Dragon” in the title.

I procrastinated and procrastinated and finally decided I should attempt to skim the book so I could at least write a half-assed book report that would get me the coveted passing “C” grade. So I sat down to read it and 200 pages later, my mother was yelling to me that I missed dinner. I ended up reading the book in 2 days. I have since read many more books but this one is really what got me interested in reading and will always be important to me. Since the dreams that subsequently led to my writing began the summer after my Sophomore year, I think reading this book planted the seed of being a writer.

Flash forward to now. I decided to go scope it out again and I saw that, over time, a lot of people have agreed with me and the reviews for the book are overwhelmingly good. Naturally, there are those who don’t agree but this business isn’t 100%. Unlike other books by bestselling authors, I saw that none of the 1 star reviews were well written at all. Matter of fact, they were all nothing more than a few sentences. Not all of them were bad, but none of them would be compelling to me as a consumer to question my purchase. There were a few that stood out, so it’s time for a laugh:

I hope this book goes out of print soon so others will not have to suffer threw all 300 pages of this horse pucky book.

What? “Suffer threw”? I don’t know about suffering through 300 pages of “horse pucky” but I certainly “suffered threw” the one sentence of this review. If you really think I’m going to question my purchase of anything based on a review like this, you’ve got worms eating your brain.

I read this book and was extremly upset by how much of my time was wasted reading that terrible book. It was a book with a bad plot. It was a book that was semi-well written. I would have to agree with someone elses review by saying it seems like one of his kids wrote it when they were twelve. The only reason it got any good reviews is because te people that actually read it from cover to cover hated it so much they did not want anything to do with it.

At least the book was “semi-well” written because this review gave me a headache. Maybe his kids did write it when they were twelve but whoever posted this review must have had their preschool child write it. Before you judge others on their writing style, take a look at your own. This reviewer has absolutely no credibility.

I sincerely doubt Mr. King wrote this book. Perhaps one of his children wrote this and he put his name on it to see if it would sell. It might be good reading material for children or the mentally deficient, but personally, I couldn’t believe this was the same author who wrote The Dead Zone, Christine, The Stand, The Shining, It …. etc. In my opinion, King’s most enthralling quality is his style. He’s has a descriptive style and a way with words which keeps you in a trance until the book is over and done with. This book has none of those qualities. To be honest, … it would make great kindling.

This one actually pissed me off. First of all, what kind of idiot recommends a book with murder, violence, and graphic death scenes to children? It’s fine to have the opinion that it isn’t up to par with his other work (even if that opinion is wrong, you’re still entitled to it) but come on, don’t be an idiot. Also, “mentally deficient”? You’re not scoring any points right now jerk-off. I’m sure there are a legion of people who have read this who would love to find out that you called them “mentally deficient”. How about you actually give a real review, instead of hurling insults at other readers? People like this make me lose faith in the future of humanity.