Showing posts with label kindle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kindle. Show all posts

Sunday, January 31, 2021

Mystery In The Adonis Valley

The setting for this mystery novel is mysterious in its own right. The Adonis Valley is near to Beirut in the Lebanon and had a collection of crumbling palaces and buildings at the time of the writing of the novel. The Middle East as it is described is not recognizable anymore to us today. It's like a romantic fairy tale, but then it was real. What we have now is decades of proxy wars between the superpowers destroying small countries.

Saturday, January 30, 2021

Mystery On Corfu

Corfu has always been the pet theory for Shakespeare aficionados as the setting for the Tempest. There is very little to go by to come up with this theory. The bard was famous for taking a loan from any story he came across. Having certain names crop up in the play and on the island is no great clue. And fiction is fiction, there should be no earthly realm to be found.

Monday, January 18, 2021

High School Gay Romance

Presenting High School life in any form is fraught with danger; either authors presume too much knowledge about how its social mechanisms work or they lose themselves in the interactions that have little or nothing to do with the story they are telling. This book falls into the first category; and that's not the worst of its shortcomings

Monday, December 7, 2020

Alaskan Heatwave

Join me in an excursion to Alaska to follow the shenanigans of Lucy Monroe's characters in her modern romance. Modern romance is not always a happy genre; many really bad authors have done loads of damage to it. But this is Lucy Monroe, no categorizing necessary. Let's get into the nitty-gritty of Hot Alaska Nights.

Thursday, August 20, 2015

Witches in Retirement

Welcome to the condo for retired wizards and witches in Grumpy Old Wizards by John O'Riley. Join the pensioners for tea and playing cards (mind reading not allowed) and join them in getting involved in a few murders in their spare time. One thing is sure, nothing has changed in the magicked up USA over the one we know today.


Wednesday, August 19, 2015

When a Spell Goes Wrong

Enter the present day world of witches, warlocks, and high-school. Then add murder to the mix. This is the enticing recipe served up by Nikki Jefford in Entangled, the first of the Spellbound books. If the mix is something you can get into, the book is free to download on Amazon for Kindle at the time of publication of this review. You will be enchanted with what you find.


Friday, August 14, 2015

Germanic Gods and Goblins

In Gateway to Nifleheim, Glenn G. Thater delves into the Germanic world of gods and goblins that are related to Valhalla and Nifleheim, the powers of good and evil to spin her yarn. This is the first book in the Harbinger of Doom Series. I have to confess at the start, I skipped many a page to keep going. The story doesn't so much move as that it plods on, tediously.


Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Regency Charade Mystery

Deceiving the Duke of Kerrington by Ginny Hartman is based on the trusted plot of a charade where people resembling each other impersonate the other. As such the book is an amusing read; when the plot becomes too obvious, you still want to read on to see how on earth the author is going to get herself out of the pit she is digging for herself page after page, deeper and steeper.

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Hero, Sword, and Dragons

The Hero, the Sword, and the Dragons by Craig Halloran is the first book in The Chronicles of Dragon series. It has everything it takes to give it lift-off, yet strangely it failed to captivate either me or my imagination. Best thing you can do is try it for yourself; at the time this review is published it's available for free on Amazon for Kindle.


Monday, August 3, 2015

Regency Murder Mystery

Are you looking for a sex, crime, and murder mystery set in Regency England? I'm afraid you haven't found it. All that dates the book's story is the mention of 1819 at the beginning of the first chapter. After that, it just is a generic sex and crime story. Stone Devil Duke by K. J. Jackson is showing up major defects in writing without doing at least some minimal research.


Friday, July 31, 2015

The Stolen Kingdom

The Stolen Kingdom by Ross Rosenfeld is a very unhappy book, or maybe an unfortunate one. It definitely suffers from multiple personae disorder. It tells the story of the missing prince in a new way; the story is placed in an imaginary Europe without giving away any cultural details as to where exactly it is.

Thursday, July 23, 2015

Here Be Dragons

It's a schoolboy's dream: Disappearing desks, mysterious objects materializing out of nowhere, and being transported to a magical realm. All this and much more can be found in Blast of the Dragon's Fury by L. R. W. Lee. And what is best, at the time of publication of this review, the book is available for free on Amazon for Kindle e-readers.


Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Getting the Best Amazon Kindle Ever

Amazon has released the third version of its e-book reader Kindle Paperwhite. A comparison with the previous model and the more expensive Kindle Voyager could help you get the best Kindle Paperwhite ever; at least for what are your personal needs. It goes without saying that I love my Amazon e-reader to bits.

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite and Voyager

Saturday, March 15, 2014

Regency Twin Trouble

Identical Twins are predestined for comedy, and Georgette Heyer made excellent use of that literary convention to write this Regency romantic comedy. When the elder twin and head of house disappears, the younger and more responsible one takes over. His moves to reduce risks of exposure just dig him in deeper as his brother stays lost for weeks on end.

Jordan and Travis Smit Twins

Friday, January 17, 2014

Teenage Apprentice Sorcerer Rescue Mission

The third book of the Belgariad sees the teenage apprentice sorcerer dig into his training up to his armpits. Traveling further through the lands of the West, readers are taken to Maragor, the Vale of Aldur, Ulgo, and into the kingdom of the Murgos. The journey of discovery of the magical fantasy world created by David and Leigh Eddings continues at a fast pace.


Sunday, January 12, 2014

A Marquis, a Dog, and Cows in London Parks

Cows in London's Park are nothing new or revolutionary, as much as councils may try to make it look that way. There were cows (as part of the amusements offered) there in Georgian time. Georgette Heyer's heroine finds that out to her chagrin when she takes her oversize dog walking one day. And that is just one of the many scrapes she and her family get into.


Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Teenage Sorcerer on The Move

The second book in the Belgariad takes readers on a ride of exploration through three kingdoms. While the first dealt with misty, orderly Sendaria and the Viking kingdom of Cherek, this one takes them through Arendia, Tolnedra and Nyissa on the quest set for Garion. Join the teenage sorcerer apprentice in trying to get answers and explanations.


Sunday, December 8, 2013

Mystery in Delphi

Sometimes, mystery novels take you places you didn't think of before. Everyone knows Delphi and its beautiful temples and ruins. There isn't a single scene in this book played out anywhere there. This book takes you out of tourist Delphi to the real Greece hidden just around the corner from the money haunts.

Delphi

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Reincarnation Every Day

What pops into your mind when you read the word reincarnation? Are past lives flashing through your mind stirring imagined memories? I found a book that can take you out of the cycle of reincarnation. Not the usual one. The cycle that somehow makes you look back thinking past incarnations are important. It's a guide to reincarnate your life now.


Sunday, December 1, 2013

Summers in Maine

Take a trip down memory lane to long summers spent at the camp or at the family house on the coast. The memoir is lovingly built and gives a believable and charming picture of family summers spent in Maine in the 1960s. Up to the point where tragedy strikes and the reader encounters the dark side of backwater America.