Everett is the first book in the Brooke Walton series. Brooke Walton brings a completely new meaning to the concept of a serial killer.
What Amazon says
From Amazon bestselling author Jenifer Ruff—a dark suspense thriller featuring a fascinating, twisted protagonist. The Brooke Walton series will make you wonder just how well you know your friends, neighbors, and classmates. Fans of James Patterson, Karin Slaughter, Hannibal Lecter, the Dexter series, and Gone Girl will be hooked. At Everett, perfection has a dark side…. Brooke is a highly-motivated coed at prestigious Everett College. She is determined to graduate number one in her class, get accepted at a top medical school, and become a surgeon. Everything is going according to plan, although she’s not sure what to do about Ethan, an attractive guy who would like to be more than friends. Her classmates and professors are captivated by her achievements and appearance, with the exception of one student. Only Jessica, a wealthy socialite, senses Brooke might not be all she appears. But Jessica has her own problems, fueled by too many prescription pills, energy drinks, and a huge case of snobbery. She’s too busy looking down her nose when she should be watching her back. What happens in a historic blizzard will settle their differences once and for all.
My review
Brooke Walton is a brilliant and focused student. She starts her first semester at Everett College after transferring from a smaller and less high profile college subsequent to a traumatic event she witnessed.
I found this story to be darkly fascinating. Brooke is a perfect student, obsessed with her studies and achieving her goals to the exclusion of anything else. She has total control over her body, pushing herself to the limit with her long-distance runs and tough yoga classes, and also total control over her mind. Nothing can distract her, not even the good-looking and wealthy Ethan who is so captivated by her good looks and independence of spirit, that he can’t appreciate the implications any of her strange and rather disturbing disclosures and traits.
Of course, such perfection must have a flaw and Brooke’s is a total lack of empathy or feeling of any kind and an ability to rationalise any situation to the outcome which suited her best. The book is written in such a way that the reader is almost convinced that Brooke is right in her thinking and you almost find yourself routing for her despite it becoming more and more obvious that what you see with Brooke is definitely not what you get.
Ethan is rather typical of a boy who has grown up in a wealthy home and attended preppy schools where he has been taught to always do the right thing and to stand up for the underdog. It is totally impossible for Ethan to begin to imagine how someone like Brooke thinks and feels. Brooke is so different from anything he has ever experienced in his sheltered life that he is completely bowled over by her. The fact that she does not respond to him in the typical way most of the girls he knows do makes her all the more attractive and interesting. Ethan is determined that Brooke is the girl for him.
Jessica is a typical spoiled society girl whose father has bought her a place at Everett college despite her demonstrating clearly on numerous occasions that she is entirely unsuited to such an academically intense environment. All Jessica can think about is what sort of impression she is making on other people and what she looks like. The pressure to maintain her flawless image results in her becoming addicted to a mix of diet pills, alcohol and antidepressants. Obviously, this makes her the complete antithesis to Brooke, who she hates on sight. Unfortunately, Brooke could never understand how completely indifferent someone like Jessica is to anyone and everything outside her own area of influence and existence and so she perceives a threat where there is none.
How will Brooke react to imagined threat posed by Jessica? How will she continue to hide her strange behaviour from Ethan? Can anyone see beyond the carefully developed image of the perfect student?
I enjoyed this book a great deal and have already bought book 2 in the series as I want to see how Brooke continues to fool everyone around her and achieve her set objectives.
Picky Eaters #1 is a short but highly entertaining read by S.J. Higbee.
What Amazon says
This tale about family life, dragon-style, is escapist fun for adults. All proceeds to go to mental health charities. Castellan the Black, now better known as Casta the Grey, has led an eventful life, but these days he’s content to live alone in his mountaintop lair, fending off occasional attacks from the food and waiting to die. At least, that’s what he tells himself. Babysitting his young grandchildren is definitely not on his to do list.
My review
I really enjoyed Picky Eaters #1, a fine tale about an aging and disillusioned dragon lord called Castellan. Castellan’s grandchildren, Sammy Jo and Billy Bob, are staying with him at his lair. An unfortunate incident results in the ‘food’ or local humans being angered and marching on his lair with evil intentions. Castellan and the two children are forced to flee and seek refuge at the home of Castellan’s daughter, the children’s mother.
There are lots of fun family dynamics when the ‘old man’ moves in and it makes for highly entertaining reading. Castellan also discovers that he has passed down a ‘time travelling’ gene to his granddaughter and the pair of them get caught up in an exciting adventure.
Will Castellan survive teaching Sammy Jo to manage her ‘gift’? Will Billy Bob survive enraging his father through an accident? You’ll have to read this novella to find out.
It is amusing and fun and will keep your nose to your kindle.
Carrie by Stephen King is today’s Halloween Book Festival selection.
What Amazon says
An unpopular teenage girl whose mother is a religious fanatic is tormented and teased to the breaking point by her more popular schoolmates and uses her hidden telekinetic powers to inflict a terrifying revenge.
My review
Carrie, by Stephen King, is one of his shortest novels. It is also the King novel that had the greatest impact on me from a philosophical point of view as King expresses viewpoints about teenagers, and how they form themselves into social groups of different status, which are true and chilling. His unerring ability to strike to the core of teenage human nature and their driving need, as a group, to hunt in packs and to be accepted by one another, as well as their intolerance of difference, is frightening to read.
Carrie has been a social outcast since her first day at primary school when she gets down on her knees, as she has been taught to do, and says prayers before lunch. From that moment, Carrie is labeled “weird” and a “religious freak” and she has no hope of ever redeeming herself, no matter how hard she tries. Carrie is the product of a single parent home and her mother is willing to abuse her daughter, mentally and physically, in order to ensure she complies with her rigid and extreme religious views. Carrie is caught between trying to please a mother she does love, despite her abusive behaviour, and attempting to be accepted by her peers at school. We discover early on in the book that Carrie isn’t an ordinary girl, but possesses some rather extraordinary powers. Her mother has had a taste of her powers in the past and is extremely frightened that they are gifts from the devil.
When Carrie becomes the victim of a school girl bullying event which involves the majority of her fellow students, one of the student’s, Sue, is so overcome by guilt, she decides to try and make amends for her bad behaviour. Sue convinces her boyfriend, Tommy, to take Carrie to the prom instead of her so that she can have a lovely evening to remember. Surprisingly, Tommy agrees and this starts of chain of events that quickly spiral out of control.
I am a great fan of Stephen King’s older works and I really enjoyed this book and the movie by the same name. I am not quite sure Carrie fits exactly into the horror book mold but it is certainly a gripping and fascinating story.
Someone is murdering members of the local witches coven. They turn to Lizzie and the hat for their unique skills that might help eliminate the killers.
A religious zealot might be a monster, but is still a human being. This task isn’t the same as staking vampires or shooting zombies. It isn’t the usual project Lizzie takes on for her night work.
This all takes place during a recovery period for Lizzie. She needs to keep her cover band together and find a new way of getting them gigs. More bands and less venues are making finances tight. The hat didn’t make things easier during her absence, by spreading rumors about why she took her sabbatical.
Someone killing others over a point of view insults Lizzie’s sensibilities. She has secrets to keep. Her employers have secrets, too. It doesn’t make for a comfortable working environment, but she agrees to do what she can.
Convincing her strong willed employers to stay indoors during all this poses another problem. Can she keep them alive long enough to finish her task?
Good Liniment is full of magic, magical creatures, and an entire underground community living amongst us.
The Hat Series consists of short novels that can be read in a single afternoon. They’re full of snarky, dark humor and can be easily read out of order.
My review
This is my favourite The Hat book so far. Lizzie is at home with her parents recovering from a mental breakdown following an unexpected death. The Hat has to perform some interesting antics to keep things going at the flat he shares with her during this absence, and also to get to Lizzie’s parents house and persuade her to come home. I enjoyed this unexpected introduction.
Lizzie is requested to meet with a coven of local witches following the murder of one of their members. Lizzie knows the dead member and is determined to help. She learns about the witches meeting place, a local pub and restaurant called Good Liniment, and gets to meet several new witches, all of whom are interesting and have their own quirks.
My favourite of the witches was the young Dash, a sixteen year old trainee witch who has recently been taken under the wing of the highly accomplished Cyrus.
This novella retains the dark humour of the other Hat books, but I found it’s subject matter to be scarier. Some of the events, and the reasons these events occur, reached deeper into the blackness of some peoples hearts, especially people who have fanatical beliefs. This aspect of the book was most relatable given the current state of the world.
My Halloween Book Festival selection for today is Soul Swallowers by D. Wallace Peach.
What Amazon says
When swallowed, some souls gift insights, wisdom, a path to understanding. Others unleash power, proficiency with a sword, and indifference to death. One soul assimilates with ease. But swallow a host of the dead and risk a descent into madness.
Estranged from his family over the murder of his wife, young Raze Anvrell wields his fists to vent his rage. Then a chance at a new life beckons, and he retreats to the foothills of the Ravenwood, the haunt of unbound ghosts. He and his mentor build a freehold, a life of physical labor and the satisfaction of realizing a dream. They raise horses and whittle by the fire until the old man dies, and Raze swallows his first soul.
When his brother reaches out, open wounds begin to scar. But the tenuous peace won’t last. While those who rule the Vales yield to the lure of their ambitions, slavers of Ezar roam the countryside, hunting for human chattel. While one man manipulates the law, another heeds the souls of violence howling in his head.
Raze too listens to his soul’s whispers, and as danger intrudes on his quiet life, he has no choice but to return to his father’s world and join the fight.
*** In this completed series, epic fantasy blends with the wisdom of old souls to create a unique coming of age story of courage and honor in the midst of evil. Slavery is pitted against freedom, anger against forgiveness, and a desire to live peacefully against the necessity to take up the sword.
It’s a story of bitter estrangement and broken hearts, of deception and unfettered ambition. For Raze Anvrell it’s a journey of violence, redemption, and his soul’s growth as he transforms from a reckless youth into a man with a rich legacy of souls.
Magic, politics, love, and madness collide in this fantasy adventure. For lovers of beauty and battle, and complex characters willing to risk everything in the fight for their souls.
My review
I was attracted to this book by its unusual title. Soul Swallowers, what could that mean? I was amazed and delighted to discover that its meaning is quite literal and one of the themes of this book is the ability of the people in the author’s beautifully constructed fantasy world to physically swallow the souls of others, friends or foes, and acquire their characteristics, skills and abilities. I enjoyed how the author explored this aspect of the book and illustrated through her characters how the swallowing of souls impacted on the swallower, changing their personality if the soul was a contradiction to their own nature and causing internal turmoil. If the soul was a good fit, the swallower would benefit hugely from this process and the two souls would eventually meld and become completely harmonious. I found this concept unique and compelling.
The author has created a world in conflict and explores the possibilities for good and evil when one culture is consumed by another. Ideas and cultural policies that work well with a conqueror in this case the Ezar, are often badly transposed and their implementation manipulated for personal gain by the representatives of the conquerors and by the leaders of the conquered, who want to retain their positions of power under the new regime. The concept of slavery depicted in the Soul Swallowers and how its initial implementation by the Ezar is twisted in the Vales to the advantage of ruthless and unruly slavers clearly demonstrates this abuse of power. The uncaring attitude of the Vale leadership highlights the distrustful and back stabbing environment that emerges in such situations. As with other brilliant works of fantasy that draw analogies with real life happenings, the influences of Tolkien’s experiences in World War 1 and their influence on his series Lord of the Rings come to mind, the author has done an excellent job of creating a world which shares interesting ideas and thoughts on problems and issue that we are currently facing with integrating cultures in our current global world.
The main character, Raze Anvrell, is the son of one of the Vale leaders who rails against his father’s wishes for him to marry the daughter of a neighbouring Vale leader and bring about an alliance of their two families. When Raze discloses that he is already married, which results in the murder of his young wife, he turns his back on his family and disappears, building himself a life on a rural farm in the Vales. The growth of Raze’s character is intriguing to experience as he goes from being a bereaved, but rather spoiled young man, to developing into a kind and compassionate man who cares for the welfare of others. Raze’s path leads him to discover that you cannot always walk away from a bad system and sometimes you have to take a stand against it.
A fascinating and well written book and one I would recommend to readers of fantasy.
Today, I’m featuring The Magician’s Curse for my Halloween Book Festival series.
What Amazon says
She seeks adventure. He battles his darkness. Will a curse end their beautiful magic?
A 2017 Paranormal Romance Guild Reviewer’s Choice Award Winner!
Herman Anderson hopes there’s more to life than her challenging past. So when a mysterious and alluring stage magician invites her to be his assistant, the seventeen-year-old can’t wait to start the behind-the-scenes training at his gothic Ontario mansion. But after she senses a growing attraction between her and the trained illusionist, she wonders what’s holding him back from stirring love’s magic.
Stephen Dagmar lives every day with the knowledge of his family’s curse. But as he sets the path in motion to destroy the dark sorcery, his stunningly beautiful stage partner throws his plan into turmoil. And as the sparks shine brighter with each passing moment, the magician fears that breaking free of the spell will crush Herman’s heart.
As the days tick down to Herman’s 18th birthday, she starts to unlock the secrets of the Dagmar family mansion. And each one is stranger and more painful than the last…
Will the magician and his assistant break their supernatural chains to discover true love?
The Magician’s Curse: A Paranormal Romance is Linda G. Hill’s enchanting debut book in her series, The Great Dagmaru. If you like passionate partnerships, hidden secrets, and powerful magic, then you’ll love this captivating tale.
Buy The Magician’s Curse to uncover the dark truth today!
My review
Herman has a most unusual name which has been a burden to her all her school life. Why on earth would her parents saddle her with a boy’s name? As this interesting book, filled with magic and mystery progresses, Herman finds out that it is not only her name that is unusual about her, or her parents choice that is unusual about them.
Herman’s mother has been very ill for a long time and her father is never there to offer any support to his family. Herman assumed the role of mother to her younger brother, Chad, when she was very young and now she is breaking free to establish a life for herself. She plans to bring her brother to live with her once she is settled and earning an income. On the train to her new job, Herman meets a riveting young man who introduces himself as Stephen. Much to Herman’s surprise, Stephen professes to be as taken with her as she is with him, so when he asks her to work for him as his assistant she doesn’t put up much of a fight. Fortunately for Herman, Stephen, who is a magician, is genuine in his offer for her to become his assistant and she quickly discovers that there is more to his magic than meets the eye. In fact, Herman soon comes to realise that the household staff and Stephen’s entire lifestyle is fairly unorthodox.
The attraction between Herman and Stephen is incredibly strong but Herman can sense there is something not quite right with their relationship and this causes her to hold back from committing herself completely to him. What is Stephen’s secret and will Herman be able to accept it when she eventually discovers what it is? I did like the fact that the character of Stephen illustrated respect for Herman and gave her the opportunity to make her own choice about his unusual situation.
This book is for adults and, although not graphic, it does contain descriptions of sex and suggestions of sexual freedoms. The romantic aspect of this book is the overriding genre with the supernatural element playing a lessor role.
My Halloween Book Fair choice for today is Maledicus by Charles F. French.
What Amazon says
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” (Edmund Burke) Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Franklin attempts to make it through life day by day. Roosevelt is a widower, who lost his beloved wife to cancer and a retired history professor, and he has not stopped grieving. He and his two closest friends, also retired and who have also lost loved ones, form a paranormal investigation group. They hope to find an answer to the question: is there life after death? When asked by a local teacher to investigate a possible haunting of her house, the group discovers an evil beyond anything they could have imagined. This is no mere ghost. Maledicus, who was in life a pimp, torturer, and murderer during Caligula’s reign in Rome, in death has become a sociopathic demon that attacks the weak and the innocent. Maledicus threatens a five year old child’s life and soul. Terrified by what they have discovered, Roosevelt and his friends must choose to either walk away from this threat , or to do battle with this ancient creature at the potential loss of their sanities, their lives, and their souls.
My review
Maledicus is the right hand man to Caligula, Emperor of the Roman Empire, and they are equally despicable, inhumane and outright evil. Maledicus has plans, great plans, whereby he will ascend to the top position of Emperor but he underestimates the incumbent, Caligula, and his many eyes and ears. Maledicus never achieves his aspirations and is dispatched to the afterlife in an unpleasant and painful way.
In the non world between Heaven and Hell, Maledicus lurks. He is not reconciled to his unnatural death and believes his chance to aspire to greatness will come. He sets about manipulating events and circumstances to achieve his ultimate goals of greatness.
Meanwhile, time has moved on and in the 21st century, three elderly and retired men, Roosevelt, Sam and Jeremy, have formed a ghost-investigating group, with the occasional help and support from Roosevelt’s nephew, ex-US Marine, Patrick. They have all suffered personal losses and this is a great way for them to keep themselves mental and physically active and to indulge in an interest in ghosts and the supernatural. When their Investigative Paranormal Society (“IPS”) gets its first really legitimate case, they find themselves up against an on-going evil that refuses to die. Can the IPS go up against an ancient and expanding evil and expect anything other than untimely deaths?
I enjoyed the characters of Roosevelt, Sam, Jeremy and Patrick and learning about their individual losses and life experiences, all of which weave together into the fabric of this well planned story.
The idea behind this book is fresh and clever and the ending was superb. I was really impressed by the author’s unique and thrilling ending.
Thank you to Professor Charles French for sharing my post about the merits of Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu. Carmilla is an important gothic horror novella as it is the original vampire story and also suggestive of Lesbian love despite its conservative Victorian setting and readership.
My September Dark Origins post focuses on climate change and the possible catastrophic effects of global heating or, as is the case in The Road by Cormack McCarthy, global cooling. Thank you for hosting, Kaye Lynne Booth.
This graph illustrates the change in global surface temperature relative to 1951-1980 average temperatures, with the year 2020 statistically tying with 2016 for hottest on record (Source: NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies).
I have fallen horribly behind with writing and sharing reviews. This time of the year is my ‘hamster in a ball’ period when I seem to be running as fast as I can and … not getting very far.
Today is a catch up and I am sharing reviews of three excellent, and very different, books I have read recently.
This book is a collection of short stories and vignettes from the “Pip-verse.” They are tales of Paisley Idelle Peabody, aka Pip, and her friends who appear in The Three Things Serial Story, and Murder at the Bijou ― Three Ingredients 1, and A Ghost in the Kitchen ― Three Ingredients 2. . Most of these tales are written in the author’s “three things method of storytelling,” meaning they are driven by sets of three random things, which were supplied by her readers. These short stories occur at various points in the timeline of those adventures, but they do not include any spoilers. . If you enjoy Roaring Twenties slang, have a sense of whimsy, and don’t mind having your heart lifted, then jump in the jalopy and hang on tight. There’s no telling where we’ll go, but there’s sure to be fun along the way. You’re the cat’s pajamas!
My review
I thoroughly enjoyed this collection of short stories about Pip. The author captures perfectly the conflict of the 1920’s, a time of rapid change and progress to which the attitudes and thought processes of the average person, and the institutions, have not yet adjusted.
Pip is a modern woman, a flapper, who wants to be independent and live her best life. Unfortunately, the world is not yet ready for Pip and she fights a constant battle against society. Thank goodness for her Granny Phanny, a most emancipated elderly lady, but who manages to rein Pip in and get her to tow the social norms of the time while still keeping the champagne bubbles in life.
This book is well researched and the language of the time is a hoot, perfectly suiting the humorous style of the writing and stories, which put an amusing spin on Pip’s struggle as an enlightened flapper against the world.
A one sentence summary of a few of my favourite stories in this collection:
Pip’s Lemon Christmas – A lonely Christmas Eve is looking up when a gorgeous delivery man arrives with a surprise package for Pip. A quote: “What would any self-respecting flapper do in such a situation? Refuse to be a sourpuss, that’s what a flapper would do!”
Pip’s a Chicken – Pip’s cooking lessons under Granny Phanny’s direction are not going well, but Granny has found her own way of coping … and eating. A quote: “Just because your friend chicken turned out as tough as an old rooster doesn’t mean you can quit.”
Pip Sees a Camel – Pip is late again and Granny Phanny decides to teach her a lesson. A quote: “That dewdropper is advertising classes for the Camel Walk dance. And that nasty, spitting beast got away.”
This collection is an entertaining peep into life in the 1920’s with strong female characters. Highly recommend.
Picture caption: The beautiful dark blue cover of The Bubble Reputation featuring a woman trapped inside a bubble
What Amazon says
If you want to destroy someone’s reputation, social media provides the perfect tool.
Emmie Hobson, children’s author and TV presenter, is riding high on a wave of popularity when an unscrupulous newspaper editor, desperate for a scoop, brings Emmie’s world crashing down.
Social media picks up the baton and a terrifying backlash of hate and abuse is unleashed. Threats are made and there are those, inflamed by the rhetoric, prepared to take the law into their own hands.
My review
The Bubble Reputation is an intriguing and chilling story which focuses on the unscrupulous nature of some reporters who will do anything for a ‘story’, fake news, and the power of social media.
Emmy is an up and coming author of a series of popular children’s books. She has her own television show and is in line to receive an award at the upcoming British Recognition of Achievement Awards Ceremony. In addition, Emmie has great relationships with her parents and partner.
Ursula Bloom is the frustrated editor of In the Picture, a paper with falling circulation figures. Ursula needs a scoop to book her paper’s circulation and she is not concerned about how she gets it or whether it is based on truth. She hatches a plan with a junior reporter to commence a smear campaign about Emmie.
The detail in this book as to how the smear campaign starts and effectively ‘gets its fake teeth’ into Emmy and everyone involved with her is fascinating and believable. Soon Emmie is fighting to hold on to everything, her reputation, her show, and her book contract. Everyone around her is fair game and her parents and partner get hauled into the media mud fight.
This is an excellent novella which will make you extra careful about what you share in the public domain.
Picture caption: The intriguing cover to The Changeling of the Third Reich in a striking dark red and featuring a picture of a young teenage girl in two worlds during WW2
What Amazon says
The year is 1968, and the Vietnam War is in full swing. Dr. Bridget Castle, a neurosurgeon in Boston, handles the victims of anti-war protests, the casualties of war, and the stress of being a woman in a male-dominated profession with ease. Her husband, her parents, and her patients all love and respect her, but her tight-knit world is in danger of unraveling when someone from her past shows up and threatens to expose her closest-held secret: that she is a Concentration Camp survivor.
For more than twenty-three years, Bridget has walked in the shoes of a girl killed in the Blitz, blurring the line of when her own identity as a German Jew ended and when she assumed the role of changeling. If not for her childhood diary to remind her of all she endured, she would be completely successful in taking on the memories of the girl she replaced. But when the son of a Nazi soldier is placed in her care, she finds herself unable to deny her past any longer.
The last time Bridget had to stare into the face of evil, she learned, despite losing everything, just how strong she was. Now that the ghosts of her past have awakened, will she be strong enough to avenge the life that was stolen from her?
My review
A dual timeline novel, this interesting story moves between an American city during the Vietnam War and war-torn Europe during WW2.
Dr Bridget Castle is a successful woman. A female doctor, she has fought for, and received, recognition, attaining the position of head of neurology at the Catholic hospital where she works. Bridget has a happy and fulfilling marriage to another neurologist; she also has a loving family. Bridget’s adopted father is also a doctor.
Bridget has overcome a terrible past. As a young Jewish girl in Nazi Europe during WW2, she survived internment in three concentration camps and was finally rescued by her adopted father, one of the liberators of the camp. During this period of her life, Bridget, lost both her brothers and both her parents. She has terrible memories of abuse, her own and other peoples, and suffers nightmares.
The story revolves around Bridget’s interactions and experiences with several patients and a few fellow doctors at the hospital. Each interaction triggers memories from Bridget’s traumatic childhood which are presented as diary entries in a journal Bridget managed to hold on to during the war years.
While some suspension of belief is required by the reader to embrace the many coincidences in this story, it is a good read, well researched (I wondered if some of the historical input came from relatives or people who lived through the war in Europe) and with an entertaining and thought provoking story.
Bridget’s character is full of internal conflict as a result of her traumatic past and particularly, the deemed rejection by her mother that took place a few short weeks before Bridget was captured by the Nazi’s and incarcerated. This perceived rejection has coloured Bridget’s entire life and thoughts about her former family.
The book examines some deep themes: racial and other prejudices (in addition to Hitler and his Nazi’s prejudice against Jewish and other people during WW2, the book examines also prejudice against the teenage Vietnam War protested who were abused by the police based on their looks and a dismissal that they were all drug takers); gender inequality at that time in America; family and other relationships and the concept of sacrifices made for love.
I enjoyed this book and the detailed history presented all wrapped up in an entertaining story.
roberta-writes.com 