Category: book-review

Roberta Writes – Book review: A Peril in Unseen Frequencies by Teagan Riordain Geneviene

Picture caption: Cover of A Peril in Unseen Frequencies featuring a pretty cartoon styled young woman and a ghostly figure in front of an old fashioned crystal set radio

What Amazon says

All-human written. In this paranormal novelette, elderly and rich widow Etha Yates is diagnosed with a heart condition. Her doctor warns that any sudden shock or excitement could kill her — and that she needs a diversion. Her attentive nephew, Donald, who lives with her, gets her to install a new crystal set radio to keep her entertained.
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Soon, Etha is shocked to hear a voice cutting through the broadcast. The voice claims to be her late husband, Chester. The ghostly voice warns her that soon he will come for her. Terrified but determined, Etha proceeds accordingly.

My review

This fourth novella in the A Medium’s Peril series is a little different from the previous books. Medium, Daphne Moultrie, is on the peripheral of this story and her gifted assistant, Cover Flanagan, is the star of this tale and also the narrator.

Elderly widow, Etha Yates, is diagnosed with a heart condition by her doctor. She must not get overexcited or over exert herself. Etha decides to employ Cover on a short-term basis to assist her with various tasks. Clover’s assistance is over and above that of Etha’s amiable young nephew, Donald, who is living with her and is a kind and caring companion. Etha is very fond of him so when Donald suggests she gets a ‘newfangled’ crystal set radio for entertainment, after some protests, she agrees. Etha finds herself enjoying the radio and looking forward to some of the programmes but the radio has a darker aspect, it is a channel through which her late husband can contact her. Etha turns to Clover to guidance. It was nice that Clover took a larger role in this story and stepped up with some enterprising ideas to protect Etha’s health in the strange circumstances.

Teagan Geneviene has a most entertaining and engaging writing style which draws the reader right into the tale and endears the characters quickly. I liked the character of Etha very much and appreciated her quirks and her devotion to her late husband’s memory. I also enjoyed that the condescending attitudes of her doctor and her young nephew annoyed her. Thank goodness for people like Etha who subtly led the way for gender equality.

This is a fast paced and exciting novella that I read in 90 minutes. It was an enjoyable read and I rather regretted finishing the story in one sitting.

Purchase A Peril in Unseen Frequencies by Teagan Riordain Geneviene here: https://www.amazon.com/Peril-Unseen-Frequencies-Mediums-Book-ebook/dp/B0HKPZ7TH4/

Find out more about this book

Teagan recently featured on Teri Polen’s Bad Moon Rising series. This is one of the answer’s to Teri’s fab questions:

Ghosts: believe or don’t?

I feel like such a hypocrite — I firmly believe in ghosts.  Yet I’m often a skeptic whenever someone else talks about their experiences.  Clover Flanagan, who narrates “A Peril in Unseen Frequencies” certainly is a believer in ghosts.  Although she’s still rather new to her paranormal gifts and sometimes doubts what she’s seeing.  The spirits come anyway though.

Picture caption: A woman seated in a chair listening to an old fashioned crystal radio. A ghostly figure is reaching towards her. Created by Teagan Riordian Geneviene

You can read the rest of Teagan’s great interview here: https://teripolen.com/2026/10/08/badmoonrising-a-peril-in-unseen-frequencies-by-teagan-riordain-geneviene-paranormal-medium-giveaway/

Make sure to visit this link and leave a comment for a chance to win a complete e-book set of A Medium’s Peril (US only)!

About Teagan Riordain Geneviene

Picture caption: Amazon author photograph of Teagan Riordain Geneviene

Driven to create wondrous worlds, despite horrors of the past, Teagan Ríordáin Geneviene is certain that

“The pen is in your hand.”

After a life shaped by the tragedy of losing a sibling to Mµnchaµsen §yndr◊me by Pr◊xy, along with the abµ§e she herself survived, Teagan took that metaphorical pen into her hand. She wrote her way to a new chapter of life with a successful career authoring and editing technical documentation. With another revision that pen took her to the next chapter, working alongside highly placed Federal executives to compose their communications. However, Teagan wasn’t finished. The pen was still in her hand. In her latest chapter she is an acclaimed multi-genre author, living in a high desert town in the Southwest of the USA. Rescue cats, the §coobies — Velma and Daphne, offer unsolicited advice on all stories, as well as the book covers Teagan designs.

This author’s stories range from paranormal to high fantasy and urban fantasy, to various steampunk (and other types of punk), to mysteries with historic settings. In addition to fiction, she has created the Author Tool Chest series of non-fiction works as resources for writers and anyone who loves language. In free time she enjoys conversations with friends, singing karaoke, and playing her piano.

See her book trailer videos at Youtube.

Find Teagan on her blog here: https://teagansbooks.com/2026/10/10/am-writing-and-bad-moon-rising-a-peril-in-unseen-frequencies/

Find all of Teagan’s books on Amazon US here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Teagan-Riordain-Geneviene/author/B00HHDXHVM

Roberta Writes – Book review: Pull by C.J. Finch for Rosie Amber’s Book Review Club

Rosie's Book Review Team logo
Picture caption: Cover of Pull which features what appears to me to be ink swirling in water. The colours are dark and light grey.

What Amazon says

Alex isn’t just running from his past—he’s running from everyone’s.

Born with the ability to see people’s memories by touch, he spends his days trying to shut out the lifetime of traumatic memories he’s collected while he focuses on his work at his brother’s tech company, desperate for some semblance of a normal life. But that proves difficult with rumors of security breaches at rival companies, and the mysterious disappearance of a beloved employee.

Just as he feels he’s about to take a step toward normalcy, a violent kidnapping turns his world upside down. Unable to stand by any longer, Alex must turn to his ability to search for clues in the memories of the people around him to find the perpetrator before the ransom clock ends.

Pull is a mind-bending thriller with a plot that twists and turns, leaving you unsure who to believe and asking yourself… are you one of the good ones?

My review

I reviewed this book in my capacity as a member of Rosie’s Book Review Team. If you would like your book reviewed, you can contact Rosie Amber here: http://rosieamber.wordpress.com/.

This is a unique and fascinating story about a young man, Alex Hemsley, who has the ability to absorb other people’s memories when he touches them. This gift is not small and manageable as he does not read flashes of memories but rather every memory the person has. This talent has a positive side as he can ‘pull’ someone and gain all their knowledge thereby gaining a huge intellectual advantage. The down side is he also sees anything bad a person has done. He can also feel the persons dark emotions.

The story kicks off with Alex assisting the police with the interrogation of a suspected child molester and murderer. The murderer deliberately touches Alex thereby passing all the details of his unbalanced and cruel mind and emotions on to Alex, along with all his memories of the numerous murders he has committed.

The story then moves on to Alex in his job as the head of security for his brother, Drew’s, data storage company. Some of the data stored is highly sensitive and relates to details about people who have made information deals with the police in exchange for new identities. Many of these people are very evil and, through the eyes of the families of their victims, do not deserve police protection. Drew’s company and the companies of his competitors, make a lot of money out of the data protection services they provide.

Drew informs Alex that one of their competitor company’s has suffered a major data security break and that information has been leaked. He tells Alex to tighten security in anticipation of a similar attempted breach. The brothers quickly become embroiled in a murder and kidnapping where the ransom is the provision of their company’s data in each for the life of the victim. With the clock ticking, Alex and Drew set out to try and find the kidnapped woman and Alex is pressed into using his skill as a ‘puller’ to help their investigation. During the course of inquiries, Alex discovered another type of ability called ‘pushing’ where the ‘pusher’ can implant false memories into the minds of their victims thereby manipulating their memories, thoughts, and actions. The kidnapper appears to be the mysterious ‘pusher’ but who is this person, and why does he/she so desperately want the secret data held by Drew’s company?

Due to the nature of the villain and their ability to ‘push’ people and override their real memories, the story takes on an unreliable narrator perspective which is very interesting. It does mean, however, that the reader needs to read with attention as there are periods in the book when you don’t know what is real and what isn’t. The reader has to stay on his/her toes to pick up the unreliable parts and where the story changes.

I enjoyed this novel and this clever plot immensely and recommend it to readers who like a book that’s different and a bit challenging. 

Purchase Pull by C.J. Finch from Amazon US here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0GTN68QSM/

Roberta Writes – Reblog: Famous Books and Authors – The World According to Garp by John Irving

I found this book to be completely fascinating and absorbing. My thanks to Barbara from https://bvitelli2002.wordpress.com/2026/07/06/book-review-fox-by-joyce-carol-oates/ for pointing me in the direction of this book.

Famous Books and Authors – Best-selling author and Academy Award-winning screenwriter John Irving and a review

Simple Pleasures: Reading and Eating – Whispers of a Southern Moon by Priscilla Bettis and Vintage Jello Salad Potluck Dish

Thank you to Priscilla Bettis for being a lovely guest. Comments are close here. Please leave your comments on LatinosUSA.

Simple Pleasures: Reading and Eating – Whispers of a Southern Moon by Priscilla Bettis and Vintage Jello Salad Potluck Dish

Roberta Writes – A trio of review for Resonant Blue, The Cielonaut, and Vengeance of a Slave

I am behind with writing and posting book reviews, so I am posting three together today. All are excellent in their different ways. I have two more poetry book reviews to go and then I’m caught up for this month.

The Cielonaut: Lost in a poetry of stars (Picture poetry) by Frank Prem

Picture caption: Cover of The Cielonaut by Frank Prem

This is an extraordinary collection of poetry. I have read many of this poet’s collections and they are all thoughtful and unusual, but this one had a powerful effect of me as a reader. It contemplates the intense and unsolvable loneliness of life alone in a spaceship lost among the unimaginable beauty and grandeur of the stars and galaxies. It entwines the awe and amazement of the voyage with the despair and isolation of the sole survivor’s situation in a profound and emotion filled way.

The poems are accompanied by gorgeous images taken from the NASA Image and Video Library. The combination is an incredibly visual poetic adventure.

The poet engages all of the senses in this collection to pull the reader into the survivor’s world. This extract from ‘the sound’ demonstrates the engagement of the sense of hearing:
“silence
is not an absence
of sound

silence is noise

a static
pushing through the background
nothing”

‘knight move’ engages, inter alia, the sense of sight:
“a pattern of squares
in three dimensions
on a wall
indicates
a knight move”

The sense of smell in the survivor’s travelling coffin as highlighted in ‘a song: an epilogue’:
“why breathe
the acrid sharpness
of unfiltered air”

There is no gravity in space as demonstrated in this extract from ‘gravity’:
“no light
but starlight
no weight
at all”

I highly recommend this fascinating poetic journey through time and space.

Amazon US purchase Link: https://www.amazon.com/Cielonaut-poetry-stars-Picture-Poetry-ebook/dp/B0D9NBS4TD

You can find Frank Prem on his blog here: https://frankprem.wordpress.com/2026/01/27/feeling-the-new-feeling-the-old/

Vengeance of a Slave (A Family Through The Ages Book 1) by V.M. Sang

Picture caption: Cover of Vengeance of a Slave featuring two crossed swords against a fiery background

My review

As a young boy, Adelbehrt, later renamed Ailbert, and his even younger sister, Avelina, later renamed Awena, are forced to watch their father crucified by the Roman soldiers. Adelbehrt knows his father was not a party to the uprising for which his village, and his father, were being punished. As a further punishment, Adelbehrt and Avelina, both very blonde and attractive children, are taken from their mother and forced into slavery. While waiting to be sold, Adelbehrt is witness to the sexual exploitation of several young girls taken from his village. His young heart hardens against the Romans and he nurtures a deep grudge against them. He and his sister are sold to a Roman trader living in Londinium. The Roman is not unkind to them but he treats them like an acquisition. Avelina is given to his young daughter as her personal slave and Adelbehrt is given to his wife, a Briton who has betrayed her own people and converted to Roman citizenship, and who treats him like a pet puppy.

This is a fascinating coming-of-age story which follows the stories of both Avelina and Adelbehrt and how they transition from their loving home to a life of slavery albeit living in luxurious circumstances, and then to escaped slaves on the run. In many ways, Adelbehrt’s hatred of the Roman’s is justified and his views are not softened until late in the story when he discovers that no nation of people is all bad, there are always good and bad people, those who treat others with compassion and those who succumb to propaganda and beliefs of superiority to other cultures. It was interesting to watch Adelbehrt’s journey alongside his sister’s and to see how motherhood softens women much quicker than any other situation or circumstance.

This story has an interesting ending which reminded me a bit of the original ending of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations where everything doesn’t turn out perfectly with a young couple in love riding off into the sunset. The ending was satisfactory and realistic.

I have some knowledge of the Roman Empire and have visited Bath and other historical Roman places in the United Kingdom. I’ve read and seen enough to know this book is well researched and a good reflection of life for Romans, slaves, and Britons during this period of history.

I enjoyed this story a great deal and recommend it to people who enjoy character driven stories in a fascinating historical setting.

Amazon US purchase link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07YMTHL69

You can find V.M. Sang on her blog here: https://aspholessaria.co.uk/2026/01/27/surviving-the-horror-the-woods-familys-final-stand/

Resonant Blue and other stories by Mary Vensel White

My review of this book was posted on Rosie Amber’s blog:

Today’s team review is from Robbie.

Orange rose and Rosie's Book Review Team
Rosie’s Book Review Team

Robbie blogs here https://robbiesinspiration.wordpress.com/

 Robbie has been reading Resonant Blue and Other Stories by Mary Vensel White.

Every now and then, I like to read a collection of well crafted short stories and this book fitted the bill. Each story is beautifully written about a thought provoking topic that will make you think.

Below is a short overview of my favourite stories in the collection.

1. Griffin: This short story starts off fairly innocuously, with an older couple anticipating a visit from their married daughter who they haven’t seen for a year. As the couple converse, a sense of anxiety develops and the reader gets the sense that the couple’s relationship with their daughter is a little tense. The husband, Alan, is trying a bit to hard to make everything perfect for the visit and it feels a little desperate.

Their daughter arrives and as the story unfolds the reason for the earlier tension is slowly revealed culminating in a rather startling event. This was an interesting tale about family relationships and secrets and just how much a wife is prepared to tolerate from her spouse.

Continue reading here: https://rosieamber.wordpress.com/2026/01/14/%f0%9f%93%9awell-crafted-short-stories-robbies-bookreview-of-resonant-blue-and-other-stories-by-mary-vensel-white-mvw888-for-rosies-bookreview-team-rbrt-booktwitter-bookx/