Book Review: Dr. Fell and the Playground of DOOM

I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for being awesome. Also, I believe that Mr. Neilson was hoping for a review. Now, if you follow my periodic ramblings, you know that I decided not to accept review requests because I haven’t generally enjoyed the experience of “Reading on Demand.” But LOOK AT THIS BOOK!

Obviously I said yes.

Author Requests: Reviews on Demand (Blogiversary Musings)

Technically, I’ve been blogging since 2008, but there were a few years of starts and stops. But not only is October the month of my first blog post but it’s also my favorite month, so there you go. Sometimes arbitrary isn’t so arbitrary. Of course, usually it is.

Anyhooo… For the rest of October I'm posting about some stuff I’ve been thinking about over the past year as a reader and as a blogger. Feel free to weigh in with your thoughts if you want.

Author Requests: Reviews on Demand

I’ve read several books over the past year that were for “requested reviews.” For the most part, it worked out fine and I enjoyed the book and my subsequent interactions with the authors. Notable in these precious people experiences have been Terry Maggert (@TerryMaggert) and Rin Oliver (@koliver_writes). And I loved Santa Muerta by Lucina Stona. Really, the problem hasn’t been the books (though there are some exceptions to that, of course) the problem has been feeling like I HAVE to read the damn thing. And then feeling obligated to like it or say nice things about it and or to write anything at all. AND THEN! An author told me that my thoughts about a book were wrong, which honestly kinda pissed me off since she asked me to read the stupid thing in the first place and I didn’t even like it that much. 

Blogging is something I do just for fun and any element of AND NOW YOU MUST DO THIS annoys me, which sets up a bad vibe for the book from the jump. So, I’ve been thinking of just refusing books from now on. So what’s the problem with that, right? Well, all the books I’ve read by request are either books by underrepresented groups or are small press/ self pubbed. These are stories that need to be amplified because they might not be mainstream candy. I’m still working this out in my head, but I might set up some boundaries for myself so that I can at least feel differently about this whole experience.

I am looking forward to the last request I have agreed to, though. 

Do you have a way to keep “jobs” fun and interesting? Do you feel like you have to be different in your reviews that authors asked you to do?

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Book Review: Brake Failure by Alison Brodie

I received a copy of this eBook for free in exchange for a review. I was happy to get the opportunity after reading another of Ms. Brodie's books. 

Truncated Goodreads Blurb:

"Is it too late to tell him you love him when you're looking down the barrel of his gun?"

Ruby Mortimer-Smyth is upper-class English, rigidly brought up to marry a man from the pages of Burke’s Peerage. She knows the etiquette for every occasion and her soufflés NEVER collapse. She is in control of her life, tightly in control. Until …she ends up in Kansas.

Ruby, far from home, is making Unsuitable Friends and "finding herself" for the first time. She falls in with a gang of Hells Angels and falls foul of the law. At every turn, she comes up hard against Sheriff Hank Gephart, whose blue eyes seem to look deep into her soul. She desperately wants him, but knows she can never have him. As the clock strikes midnight of the new Millennium, she's on a freight train with three million dollars, a bottle of Wild Turkey and a smoking gun.

What happened to Miss Prim-and-Proper? And why did she shoot Mr Right?”

What I have to say about it:

Book Review (Blog Tour): Friday Night, Eight O'clock by Nino Gugunishvili

I received a copy of the ebook for free in exchange for a review and participation in the blog tour, going on right now!

What Goodreads had to say:

Tasha is a dreamer in search of a new dream.

She's bored with Pilates. She's never tried yoga. She doesn't even have a driver's license. She lives a pretty ordinary life as a freelance writer who battles the occasional flow of melancholy with the regular flow of martinis. Nestled into her couch, her television remote in one hand and a cold adult beverage in the other, she's found a favorite way to pass the hours on a Friday evening. It's comfortable and familiar, but it's not exactly an exciting way to live. With two of her closest friends, a bossy mother, an eighty-two-year-old grandmother, and Griffin, her fat yellow Labrador at her side, she knows that there has to be something better out there.

But where?

When she gets an unexpected offer to relocate to France to write a magazine column, she thinks her circumstances are improving. But life in a new country isn't all pêches et la crème. Now far away from her comfort zone, Tasha must find the inner strength to start a new career and navigate the bizarre and unknown world of professional jealousy, intrigue, and conflicting personalities in a very foreign land.

It's enough to make a girl yearn for those quiet nights on the couch.

My two cents:

Book Review: The Double by Alison Brodie

One of my blog goals for 2016 is to do more “book community” stuff. Ergo. I signed up with I Heart All the Books to participate in a couple of book tours! Yay, me. Isn’t it amazing how easy it is to get involved with writers and their work these days!? Anyway, I received a free copy of the book in order to provide a book review and to participate.

  

Here's the book's official (and much too detailed) blurb:

A night she can’t remember. A week she won’t forget. 

Beth is mistaken for rock star, Sonita La Cruz, and ends up on a billionaire-dollar yacht. As a shift-worker in Glasgow, Beth has only known hardship. Now she's in a world of uniformed stewards, French cuisine and rows of gorgeous designer frocks. Beth keeps quiet about the mix-up, determined to wear every outfit in her wardrobe before she's sent home. What's wrong with a little play-acting? Beth takes to the role of rock diva like a duck takes to water.

The captain arrives. Aleksandr sees a raven-haired girl in tiara and diamond-studded bikini lying on deck issuing orders through a megaphone. Aleksandr realizes what’s happened: His smuggling pals, knowing he needs to speak to Sonita about a kid’s crisis, have grabbed this lookalike and brought her here to meet him. Sadly, the girl is not Sonita. Aleksandr is desperate. Sonita promised to help the children but she’s disappeared.

Beth rises to the challenge. She looks like Sonita, so why not BE Sonita? Beth does a magazine interview for one million dollars, and ransoms herself for another million. Beth saves the children but can she save herself? Too late, Beth discovers the reason why Sonita disappeared.

 *

A full-bodied romance that sweeps across the globe, from a civil war in the Eastern Bloc, to a luxury yacht on the Côte d'Azur, to a poor housing estate in Glasgow.

  

Here’s what I had to say about it:

Book Review: Santa Muerte by Lucina Stone

So, last month I posted a Themed Thursday post about bad- ass women monster killers. Super fun post to write, by the way. Check it out... Anyway, in response to that I was offered a copy of Santa Muerte to read and review because it seemed up my ally. Free book? Have opinions? Yes, please!

So, the Goodreads summary is mad long, go find it [here.] Once you've read that you can come back here and I can give you the real story.

- Jeopardy Theme Song- 

Book Review: Let Me Just Say This by B. Swangin Webster

I was asked if I would be interested in reading this book as part of a blog tour hosted by The Notebook Blogairy. I was super flattered to be considered for this blog tour and accepted a free copy of the book to participate.

Let Me Just Say This by B. Swangin Webster.

Goodreads Description:

"Let Me Just Say This is an urban drama depicting the struggles one woman goes through to get out of her abusive marriage and how she finds the strength to begin the search for love with another."

Not a hell of a lot to go on, is it? I like fiction that depicts realistic people, relationships, and drama. This book certainly does that. The story is mostly about Cheryl, a woman who married a handsome young man despite her misgivings