Fallen Review

For the third time this year, Ann Hunter has produced a masterpiece: this time in her twisted retelling of the “frog and the princess” in Fallen.

Fallen is the bow that wraps up the package that Ann started in The Subtle Beauty and wrapped ever so delicately with Moonlight. Fallen tells the tales of Sylas Mortas and Ros, the chicken who thinks she is more than that.

The tale opens with Sylas running off to avoid being subject to an arranged marriage. Along the way, he falls for a beautiful robber who takes him prisoner and demands that he return to the king for ransom. Reluctantly, Sylas agrees and goes back, dejected that he has lost “the love of his life.”

Once back at the castle, Sylas demands that he be given a chance to find “the love” instead of being forced into a live of loveless marriage, as he supposed that the arranged marriage would be. Reluctantly, the father agrees and gives him until the next holiday to find her or be forced into the marriage.

The holiday comes and there is no sign of the robber. Sylas resigns himself to the future, only to find out that the marriage was arranged to the robber, who was secretly a princess from another region. He happily looks forward to the wedding after finding out this revelation.

The first twist of the book happens when Sylas’ grandfather is faced by a witch. Without giving away too much, Sylas takes his grandfather’s place, and this is a twist that causes ripples thru the rest of the book, even leading to who dies.

After the witch takes Sylas he begins to learn magic, and this is the part of the book that ties in to the other two books of Ann’s writing, as she explains how things were from Sylas’ perspective.

I mentioned Ros, as the chicken who thought she is more than that. Her story is intermingled throughout the book, and she helps to keep Sylas human during much of his tutelage under the witch, and it makes for entertaining backstory. I have heard there is to be a separate story of Ros coming out, and I thoroughly look forward to its unveiling.

As is the case with all of Ann’s writing, this book sucks you in from the first page and you do not want to put it down. It is a story of morality and mortality, death and life, and how choices affect not just your life, but others around you. It is definitely worth your money to pick up this book and it would make another good bedtime story to read to your children. I heartily give this book five stars!!

You can find this book at Ann's Amazon page located here. After speaking with the author, she has advised me to tell she is having a mega sale Nov 28 - Dec 1, leading up to the release of A Piece of Sky (ROS's story),  Take a moment to check out her other books so you get a complete picture of her awesome body of work.

As always, if you like what I have to say, please leave me feedback below or send me an e-mail at childofking88@aol.com. If you don’t like what I have to say, please leave me feedback below or send me an e-mail at childofking88@aol.com.
As always, be kind, please rewind, and remember two wrongs may not make a right, but three rights always make a left.

Moonlight Review

Moonlight is the second story by Ann Hunter, and is prequel of sorts to her first book The Subtle Beauty. I was asked to read an advance release copy of the book and do the review for the book, and after reading the book, I could honestly say, I would have read the book anyway.

Moonlight is the story of Aowyn and her six brothers, as they grow up in the Summer Isle. Aowyn is the red-headed princess and love of her mother Sulwyn’s heart. As the book opens, Sulwyn is struck with an illness and dies, leaving her father Aodhagain alone --- at least for a while. The queen’s handmaid, Ciatillait, swoops in and puts a spell over him, so all he sees is her and that is all he cares for. Caitillait is so obsessed with the kingdom that she drives the sons out of the castle with magic - - - magic that turns them into swans.

Aowyn cannot stand to see this happen to her brothers and goes to make a pact with the person who gave Caitillait her power, and this man – Silas Mortas – advises that he will return the brothers to their human form, after a thousand moons. All she has to do is tell no one of what has happened between them.

In the meantime, war breaks out between the Twelve Kingdoms and the Summer Isle and Xander and his brother are sent to fight at the front for their king, Rab Blacksteed. Xander spots Aowyn after an unfortunate event with two of the swan/brothers, and the result is love at first sight.

As the war rages on, Aowyn convinces Xander that they have a common enemy, Caitallait, who is now in charge of the kingdom, after wedding Aodhagain and causing him to have an illness. Together, they rid the kingdom of Caitillait, and Xander professes his love for Aowyn. When she does not return his love, he leaves and heads back to the Twelve Kingdoms to marry his brother’s fiancé, after the custom when your brother dies.

Aowyn goes after Xander, finding that he is her true love, and the book ends with a twist that you would not expect (I don’t want to give it away).

This, like The Subtle Beauty, is a short read, but well worth the investment, as it will teach your children about love, determination, and sacrifice. It is a great book to read to your children as they are going to sleep, as it has everything that a fairy tale should have: love, fighting, magic, and a happy ending.

You can find Ann Hunter’s books on Amazon here. It heartily deserves the five star rating that I have given it, and it will make its way into my children’s bedtime stories when they are old enough to appreciate good reading.

As always, if you like what I have to say, please leave me feedback below or send me an e-mail at childofking88@aol.com. If you don’t like what I have to say, please leave me feedback below or send me an e-mail at childofking88@aol.com.
As always, be kind, please rewind, and remember two wrongs may not make a right, but three rights always make a left.

The Spiral Slayers and The Subtle Beauty review

I have recently had the pleasure of reading two books which are so diverse but are well worth your time. The first one was entitled The Spiral Slayers by Rusty Williamson, which is a dense but interesting science fiction thriller that starts with the apparent death of an asteroid miner and ends with the beginning of a war with the spiral slayers. What happens in between is an edge of your seats thrill ride that makes you want to keep reading.

I honestly did not know what to expect on this novel when I picked it up and was a little leery when I first started reading and saw detailed drawings of the ships and the universe that was created for this book. But then the drawings began to make sense when I got into the book. The main premise of the story is a race of highly advanced slug like creatures for lack of a better description come to a planet and make contact with the people of that planet after rescuing the miner and bringing him back to life.

This starts a relationship between the miner, who becomes a celebrity amongst his people, and the creatures, who demand to only deal with him. One minor side effect of having the creatures rescue him is that he is granted immortality, which causes a major disruption with the government and the creatures have to give the entire planet immortality (which was their intention in the first place, much to the government’s dismay).

After the immortality drug is distributed and the creatures begin to share their tech with the people, the one that met with the miner leaves and sets out for the home world, which is a two hundred light year round trip. However, within a short time, the ship returns bearing bad news, that the creature’s galaxy has been destroyed.

Without going into too much detail, the rest of the story is about the build up of the military and the escalations to the actual war with the bad guys which never really appear, as the book ends with a cliff hanger, making you have to read the next book.

Rusty did a good job with his descriptions and made the universe come alive, and I will definitely be buying the second book to see how the conflict resolves itself. If you are into sci-fi and are looking for something that is not your typical robot or star chaser story, then give The Spiral Slayers a chance.

The other novel that I read was by a good friend of mine named Ann Hunter that I have known thru My Fitness Pal for several years. When she approached me last year and said she had finished her book, I was excited to read it. I would describe it as a fantasy retelling of Beauty and the Beast, and is entitled The Subtle Beauty.

It is the story of a king who made a pact with an “evil” man in order to expand his kingdom, and gained the use of a mystical sword. But by doing so, he became consumed with the power that the sword gave him. Finally, he is so consumed with the power that his wife asks that the gods take her to make him come home and be with their unborn son. The son is born but is deformed as the king is brought to his knees and sent back to his castle, ordered never to go out and try to expand again.

Years later, a beautiful daughter of a king falls in love with a falconer and plans to run away and be married to him, but the king has other plans. He wants to marry her to the deformed son of the defaced king so that the kingdoms can be united. The daughter hears of this and devises a plan to run off with her love, but is kidnapped. From there the story is intense, but full of love and loss, and the true face of love is shown as well as what it means to be a man, and a boy.

I could not put this story down from the time that I began reading it, and would read it again in an instant. It is the perfect Valentine’s Day story, or the perfect rainy day story, or the perfect story to read to your kids.

I do have to tell you that there are swear words in both stories which knocked them down from getting perfect 5’s.

As always, if you like what I have to say, please leave me feedback below or send me an e-mail at childofking88@aol.com. If you don’t like what I have to say, please leave me feedback below or send me an e-mail at childofking88@aol.com.


As always, be kind, please rewind, and remember two wrongs may not make a right, but three rights always make a left.

Propinquity and 2013 Nano

A while back, I volunteered to review a book entitled Propinquity by John McGregor. And being a procrastinator, I kept putting off doing the review for this awesome book. (And for that, John I completely apologize).

(Warning: Spoilers ahead)

Propinquity is a roller coaster ride that starts off slow. You are first introduced to the characters that will come and go in the book, led by Clive Lean, the man who signs his company away to a man who is a hobo just to avoid the bad mark of having a company go under on his watch. Then there is the liberationist, who is always willing to give his life just because that is the thing to do, and ends up going to Haiti to do just that. Finally there is the man that will end up as the member of Italian Guard.

As Clive leaves his company behind, he decides to go back to school, and meets a woman, who has some interest in Medieval history, specifically the wife of Richard the Lionhearted, Berengaria of Navarre. It is here that the story begins to pick up steam, as the plot begins to explain why Berengaria of Navarre is important. Allegedly, she had some secret writings that were against what the church was preaching and that was the reason she was killed.

So, Clive and the lady goes and starts looking for the queen. Well, they don’t have to look far, as the lady actually knows where the queen is buried since her dad is actually in charge of the church where she is buried, unbeknownst to him. So they break in one night and steal the body and find the writings which are also with the body, and begin to figure out a way to bring Berengaria back to life.

Wait? Bring her back to life? Yes, come to find out, Queen Berengaria was not actually killed, just put into a very deep sleep, and this is where the liberationist comes back into the story. Clive and his girlfriend travel to Haiti to visit a witch doctor who indirectly give him a cure for a sleeping spell. When the Clive and the girlfriend come back, they bring the Queen back and the back story is explained of how the sleeping happened.

Matters are tied up nicely, and the book does a great job of making you think about your beliefs. John has done a lot of research into Medieval culture and the church. The book is well worth your time, and is worth your money on in any media.

Overall rating 4.75 stars/ 5.00

On other topics, as most of you know that follow my blog, yes, all three of ya. I do Nanowrimo. For the uninitiated, that is National Novel Writing Month. It is during the month of November and it is where you work on trying to getting a semi-coherent piece of fiction together totaling at least fifty thousand words. This year was my seventh year doing Nano, and this year I decided to do something completely out of my normal wheelhouse of sci-fi or mysteries and do something completely different: a wrestling novel. And before you start going crazy on how I have lost my mind, I was not going to be using wrestlers from the World Wrestling Federation or Total Non Stop Action. No, all the wrestlers in my book were going to from the world of the internet. I had already spoken to most of them last year and made sure they had no problem with me doing it, and all I had to do was start writing. So, between November 1 and November 30, The Rise and Fall of Living Dead Wrestling was created, and 58,262 words later, it is about 2/3 to completion. I will be working on completing it this month, and hope to get it out and online for the populace to peruse early next year. More updates to come. . .

You can get a copy of Propinquity at John McGregor's amazon site, which the link is right here, and you can get either the hard copy or the Kindle version.

As always, if you like what I have to say, please leave me feedback below or send me an e-mail at childofking88@aol.com. If you don’t like what I have to say, please leave me feedback below or send me an e-mail at childofking88@aol.com.


As always, be kind, please rewind, and remember two wrongs may not make a right, but three rights always make a left.

Night Sea Journey, Rogue Genesis, Angel Killer, and Knight Schoolreviews

I came across Night Sea Journey thanks to my feed on Goodreads.com, and decided to take a chance on it. The author sent me a message advising what I would be in for and inquired if I would still be interested in reading, and considering some of the things that I have read in my day, I sent her back a reply advising I had no problems reading about any of them.

So, Paula Cappa sent me a copy of Night Sea Journey, and let me tell you, from the very beginning, it was like nothing that I have read. The book starts out with Kip having a nightmare, but the nightmare is real. She finishes the nightmare the only way she knows how to, and the same way that she has for numerous nights prior: by shooting the creature that is attacking her, and then burying it in the sand around where she lives.

Her shrink thinks that this is some sort of waking hallucination that she is having, and will not listen to Kip as she tries her best to convince him otherwise.

At the same time, the Catholic church has decided to send one of its priests, named Raymond Kera, on a sabbatical, if you will, to the island where Kip lives, to clean up and restore the church and parish for whoever will come next. He moves in to the parish and notices Kip during her nightmare burial, and decides to investigate for himself. Thus begins a romance that can only end badly, one would think.

The being keeps pursuing Kip and because of his involvement with her, ultimately begins pursuing Ray.

Ray and Kip finally face off with the being and the conclusion alone makes the book worth the read. I have held back on going too much into details on the book simply to give you the pleasure of discovering it for yourself.

I took on this book because I am a fan of anything supernatural (I grew up with Frank Peretti’s books) and although this is not the same kind of battle that you see in his early literature, it did make me harken back to some of his writing style.

Suffice it to say, if you are interested in the Catholic church, angels, demons, priests, or just a good story that will keep you turning the pages, then Night Sea Journey is the story for you.

Overall rating: 4.50/ 5.00 stars.

Rogue Genesis was another gem that was found thru Goodreads.com, but unlike the previous book, it was not a romantic paranormal drama. Instead, it was a interstellar romp that will leave you breathless from the action and jumping between worlds.

You see, the hero in this book is a very different man because he has the ability to jump between Earth and a distant world named Astreal. While he is here on earth, he is working for a private organization trying to find a link between psychic ability and what is going on with the world around us. While he is on Astreal, he is a field general in the race to rid the planet of one species before the death of Astreal occurs, all the while trying to get the rest of the planet to earth.

The way that the book jumps back and forth from Earth to Astreal at first does seem a little jarring, but after you get into the book it is almost always preceded with the announcement that it is going to happen. You are thrown around a little in the early chapters, but Ms. London seems to realize this error and rights the ship quickly.

Let me just say that when I started this book, I was a little skeptical. I have been reading sci-fi since I was a teenager, so it takes a lot to impress me. I have to say, Ms. London has impressed me. The pacing of the book was good. There was never a lot of filler just in the book to make the chapter longer: every detail seemed to be in the book for a reason.

Since this is the first book in a series, I look forward to what Ms. London has to offer in the future and fully expect to be a reader of hers for years to come.

Overall rating: 4.75/5.00

The last two books are by one of my favorite writers of late: Andrew Mayne. Andrew Mayne seems like he can do it all: he is a podcaster (on weirdthings.com with the Weird Things Podcast along with Brian Brushwood and Justin R. Young); he is a magician and up close illusionist; and a blogger. But most of all, he is a science fiction writer who has penned seven books in just under two years.

The first book, Angel Killer, is about a former illusionist who decided to stop performing and join the FBI. The why behind it is not explained, and fortunately is not very important as you get thrown into the story on page one with a girl being pulled into a truck to turn a “trick” and then chloroformed. From there, it is a mile a minute thrill ride that constantly keeps you guessing as to what is going to happen next.

The story itself takes you cross country as Jessica Blackwood tries to figure out a series of “magical” reappearances: a dead girl from two years earlier, a Navy plane from years prior, and finally an angel that vanishes from the roof of the Empire State building and appears moments later in the middle of Manhattan. It is a very well written book that brings crime and magic into a place that few dare take it, and for good reason: it can end badly, or worse, be written badly.

You get brief glimpses into the world of magic and illusion, which is incredible, especially for someone that loves to sit and watch good magic and try to figure out how it was done. You also get a good story with a believable plot, which speaking as someone who has tried to write mysteries, is harder than it seems. Just when you think you have the killer figured out, he switches tactics on you and you get thrown into another direction.

I would definitely like to see more of Jessica Blackwood in the future, especially with the somewhat success of “Now You See Me.”

Overall rating: 4.75/5.00

The final book is Andrew Mayne’s latest masterpiece, Knight School, which unlike Angel Killer, is actually available in paperback as well as in Kindle version. I picked the Kindle, for the time being, but will end up buying the paperback and getting it signed by Mr. Mayne because it is his best book to date.

Knight School is the story of two rival schools that are in the same town, but share a much darker secret: the secret of Nazi gold buried in the forest. Now it is up to Marv Whitlock to fight his way thru school as well as a world of girls and knights who would rather see him bloodied and beaten than find the treasure.

Along the way, he meets Venn, leader of the Dragons, the knights who lurk in secret at his high school, and several other notable characters. Each character has his own tendencies, so they don’t seem to be interchangeable.

As the story progresses, Marv finds out about himself, what he is made of, and how far he is willing to go to find the gold.

This book is a quick read, but it is by no means a skim. You will find yourself deeply immersed in the world, and begin to feel the arrows and sticks as the battles rage and the teenagers fight for acreage in the forest.

I hope that Andrew continues to write like this, as this was his best book to date, and he can only go up from here.

Please, keep the books coming, and I will continue to read them.

Overall rating: 5.00/5.00

As far as where you can pick up any of these books, Night Sea Journey is available on Kindle for 2.99 at amazon.com or thru Ms. Cappa’s Goodreads.com page.

Rogue Genesis is available on Kindle for 2.99 at amazon.com or thru Ms. London’s Goodreads.com page.

Both Knight School and Angel Killer are available on amazon.com, Knight School’s link is here and is currently 99 cents. Angel Killer is 2.99 and the link is here.

As always, if you like what I have to say, please leave me feedback below or send me an e-mail at childofking88@aol.com. If you don’t like what I have to say, please leave me feedback below or send me an e-mail at childofking88@aol.com.

As always, be kind, please rewind, and remember two wrongs may not make a right, but three rights always make a left.

Descent Into Temptation review

I have this friend (well, maybe not a friend, but someone that I know on both FaceBook and a weightloss website called MyFitnessPal) who wrote a book and was actually brave enough to publish it, which is more than I have done. I write books (I have 6 completed or mostly completed as of today, but have NOT been published or even looked at by an agent), and then they just sit on my computer waiting for the “right moment” to be rewritten. I just started the rewrite on my first book I ever completed, and it was finished eighteen years ago!!!

Regardless, this friend asked me if I had read her book, and it shocked me because I had no idea that she was a writer! I said no, but told her I would download it and read it. And so, my Descent into Temptation began.

Descent into Temptation was written by Rachel Doan Funk, and it is the story of one man’s ride from sanity to insanity and beyond all because of one woman. I can tell you that I don’t normally read this kind of book, but I could almost see the events playing out like a Lifetime movie. Come on, ladies, you know the one I’m talking about. The one that comes on at ten o’clock on a Thursday when there is nothing else on, and pretty soon you are sucked in, gripping your seat every time that you see the man, cringing about what he’s going to do.

The book starts out innocently enough, with a man staring out a window. He spots a woman just getting off the bus, and from that moment on, it seemed that woman was the only thing that filled his conscious.

Rachel does a great job of making the reader want to continue with reading. The man makes it is personal business to hunt down this woman, even having full scale hallucinations involving the woman. There is one part of the book where it seems as though he has forgotten all about the woman, but then when his co-worker comes in to cover some of his clients, to the man’s shock, the work that the man had been doing turns out to be pages are filled with obscene drawings and nothing of any work related matter. I think it is then that the man finally snaps (although I am sure that others would disagree), accusing his friend and co-worker of trying to blackmail him by placing the pages of filth in place of all the “work” he had done.

The story doesn’t stop there. Several days before he has been exposed as having a problem, he moves in next door to the woman, spending his waking moments fantasizing about the woman and what he is going to do with her. So, as anyone can figure out from the review thus far, you can see where the book ends up going, so I will not spoil the actual end of the book.

The book is a definite psychological thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat as you work your way thru it. There is some detailed sex and language in the book, but given what the man was thinking and going thru, it fit and did not seem to be thrown in just to shock or tantalize the reader.

I give this book my full recommendation and suggest that you pick it up. It is available on her Amazon page in both paperback and for the kindle so you have your choice of how to read it. Rachel has something with this book, and I would gladly read another book by her, and I suggest you read Descent into Temptation.

Overall rating: 4.25/ 5.00 stars.

As always, if you like what I have to say, please leave me feedback below or send me an e-mail at childofking88@aol.com. If you don’t like what I have to say, please leave me feedback below or send me an e-mail at childofking88@aol.com.

As always, be kind, please rewind, and remember two wrongs may not make a right, but three rights always make a left.

Two Book Reviews: Time Killer and The Secret Of Genetic Corp X

Time Killer review


Todd Thiele’s book Time Killer is an edge of your seat thriller about a man who has made it his mission to rid the world of the people that personally wasted his time. I have to tell you, when I first read the premise of the book, it intrigued me, because a lot of murder mysteries are just retreads of an old story with a new paint job, but not Time Killer. Todd drops you in the middle of the first murder and keeps the story rolling from there.

And the two detectives are written just like something that I seem to be seeing on most of the cop shows I watch. A grizzled veteran gets teamed up with a new kid and they have to overcome their prejudices and preconceived notions about each other and work together to solve the murders before it is too late. I was definitely glad to see that this book was subtitled Max Larkin Mystery #1, as I look forward to future stories between the two of them.

The plot was another thing: I, for one, could not figure out who the killer was until he was “revealed” and he explained what his motive for doing the deed was. Todd’s writing style is one that will keep you guessing and even after the killer is revealed, he will keep you reading until the final page with the twists he puts in.

The only bad part of the book is the language. There is a good bit of profanity in it, and I think that may have deterred me from giving this a perfect score.

All things considered, this is a very well written story, Todd, and I look forward to the next one.

Todd’s book is available on Amazon.com, as well as on Barnes and Noble, and is definitely worth your time and money to pick up.

Overall rating: 4.25/ 5.00 stars.





The Secret of Genetic Corp X review

My first love has always been sci-fi and fantasy, so when I read the description of The Secret of Genetic Corp X, it sounded like a story that I would be interested in. So, I downloaded it, and when it came up for my reading pleasure, I dug in, excited at what it could bring.

Instead, the story seemed to drag, as it did not have that much sci-fi or fantasy in it. The premise of the story was about a girl who was supposed to be the leading researcher for Alzheimer’s, but an accident changed her somehow. But, I was treated to a story that was about a girl who plays thru a video game to find out about her father, husband, and self, as well as the company that she used to work for.

Meanwhile, her father is involved with some sort of Mafia connection that ends up trying to blackmail him with what they knew about the company. In the end, it was a lot of fluff, but no real substance.

The one redeeming quality of the book was the twist that comes towards the end, when the daughter’s true identity is revealed. Unfortunately, I had kind of figured that out when I started in on the book.

All in all, this book can be something to read if you need something to kill time, but don’t expect it to bring any ground breaking revelations into your life.

This book is available at Shannon McRoberts’ Amazon.com page.

Overall rating: 3.00/ 5.00 stars.


As always, if you like what I have to say, please leave me feedback below or send me an e-mail at childofking88@aol.com If you don’t like what I have to say, please leave me feedback below or send me an e-mail at childofking88@aol.com.



As always, be kind, please rewind, and remember two wrongs may not make a right, but three rights always make a left.