Tag Archives: dystopian

Master’s Promise (Angel Eyes 3) by Jamie Schulz-Review tour

Posted on by
11

Master’s Promise (Angel Eyes 3) by Jamie Schulz-Review tour

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / Amazon.uk / Amazon.au /

Don’t own a Kindle? Download the FREE Amazon Kindle App for your mobile device or pc

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date December 14, 2021.

He swore he’d protect her.
But can they ever trust each other enough to fall in love?

Bret Masters is as good as his word. Following through on his pledge to nurse back to health the woman who owns him, the rugged ranch-hand showers her with care while still guarding his heart. But as he spends hour after hour by her side, the stubborn cowboy feels his resistance crumbling.

Angel Aldridge fears she won’t recover. Seized by the horrors of her past, her handsome foreman is the only comfort she knows. But when a frightening incident results in an intimate confession, the curvy rancher worries she’s pushed him away for good.

Stung by Angel’s words, Bret struggles to believe love could ever be possible in this broken world. And with Angel’s enemy returning to exact revenge, she’s frightened she’ll never again feel her hero’s embrace.

With danger on its inevitable way, is this the end for the star-crossed couple?

Masters’ Promise is the steamy third book in The Angel Eyes futuristic dystopian cowboy romance series. If you like captivating characters, forbidden desire, and dark twists, then you’ll adore Jamie Schulz’s riveting read.

•••••••

REVIEW:MASTERS’ PROMISE is the third full-length instalment in Jamie Schulz’ adult ANGEL EYES post-apocalyptic, dystopian, dark romance series. This is ranch owner Angel Aldridge, and Bret Masters’ continuing story line. MASTERS’ PROMISE should not be read as a stand alone as it picks up after the events of book two MASTERS’ ESCAPE

WARNING: Due to the graphic nature of the story line premise including rape, torture, slavery, violence, and abuse, there will be triggers for more sensitive readers

SOME BACKGROUND: Several years earlier a catastrophic war destroyed cities and towns throughout the world, and ‘changed the social order’ between men and women. In the ensuing aftermath, a second civil war, between the sexes in America, resulted in women becoming the dominant, deviant and controlling sex, while men were reduced to slaves to be used and abused.

Told from several third person perspectives including Bret and Angel MASTERS’ PROMISE continues to focus on the tempestuous relationship between ranch owner Angel Aldridge, and her slave Bret Masters. Bret Masters has struggled in the years since the social order of the world upended itself making women the dominant sex in a world controlled by torture and abuse. Trust was difficult, and trusting his ‘master’ Angel Aldridge went from bad to worse when Bret found himself fighting for his life, believing the woman with whom he was falling in love, would protect him from further suffering and pain. Angel had promised never to hurt Bret, or the other ‘slaves’ that worked and lived on her ranch but hurt came in many forms, and Bret was constantly on the receiving end of heart breaking pain, both emotional and physical.

Angel Aldridge is a woman struggling with the new social order of the world but to not follow the new dictates means lives are on the line including the men and women who live on her ranch. Angel is emotionally and physically weak, and mentally unprepared for the horrors of the abuse inflicted by others, and in this, Angel has left Bret Masters open to be hurt, once again. Having loved and lost, Angel battles between head and heart, leaving Bret Masters in the direct line of fire.

MASTERS’ PROMISE is a graphically detailed and violent, heart breakingly painful, and complex story of power and abuse, betrayal and vengeance, obsession and psychotic cruelty. Each story line delves deeper into the inhumanity and barbarity of the women now in control-an almost giddy depravity of a mindset that is desperate for vengeance and retribution for sins of the past. One has to dig deep into the darkness to find the trigger that allows for such a need to hurt and destroy. MASTERS’ PROMISE ends on a cliff hanger-NOT a happily ever after for now, as stated in the online blurbs…MASTERS’ PROMISE ends with one sadistic woman’s need to humiliate, defile, and abuse, and Angel claims to be powerless to help the man that she loves.

Previous Reviews and Reading order
Jake’s Redemption
Masters’ Mistress
Masters’ Escape

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

 

 

Follow: Facebook / Website / Goodreads / Amazon Author Page

Hi there! My name is Jamie and I’m so glad you stopped by!

I’ve always wanted to be a storyteller and spent countless hours dreaming up tales to entertain myself and my friends. I kept long-running, developing narratives in my head for years and knew someday I would write them all down, not only for myself but also to share with all of you.

I have so many stories still floating around the back of my cluttered mind (and haunting my hard drive as well) and they will be making their way out into the world for your enjoyment soon (I hope)!

I still live in the Pacific Northwest with my husband, my family, and my fur-babies.

Share

Run Lab Rat Run (Modified 1) by Shawn C Butler-Review & Interview

Posted on by
15

Run Lab Rat Run (Modified 1) by Shawn C.  Butler-Review & Interview

RUN LAB RAT RUN
by Shawn C. Butler
Release Date August 11, 2021
Genre: adult, dystopian, sci-fi, futuristic

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / Amazon.uk / Amazon.au /

Don’t own a Kindle? Download the FREE Amazon Kindle App for your mobile device or pc

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date August 11, 2021.

Media’s eyebrows were once blue for nine weeks, her bones nearly dissolved and she spent a month smelling like salted pork, but no one ate her and she never died. She came close enough to require CPR and a genomic flush on several occasions, but she’s nearly indestructible. That’s what they told her on the bad days in the lab, but she knew it was a lie.

Genetic test subjects like her usually died by thirty, and they always died in pain.

But on her 21st birthday, she’s given a chance to escape the lab—she just has to run in the deadliest race on Earth so the company that owns her can do illegal off-book testing on her. If she finishes the race, and the tests work, she and her family will be safe and she might live forever. If she doesn’t, they’ll be deoptimized and dumped back, in natural slums to starve and die. In her world, the worst thing to be is merely human.

Or is it?

••••••••

REVIEW:RUN LAB RAT RUN is the first instalment in Shawn C. Butler’s futuristic MODIFIED sci-fi, dystopian series focusing on twenty-one year old ‘Baseline’ Media Conaill.

Told from first person perspective (Media) RUN LAB RAT RUN follows twenty-one year old ‘Baseline’ Media Conaill as she is invited to participate in the Modified Marathons, the most dangerous ultra-marathon in the world for enhanced runners but Media is not quite an enhanced human, our heroine is a human guinea pig; an embryonic lab rat sold by her parents to TTI, the TrumaniTech Corporation, in the aftermath of the Chrome Wars. Flagged for exceptional characteristics, Media would become the ward of TTI, a ‘baseline’ subjected to all sorts of entry level genetic modifications. As a Beta, Media would be the one of the few early-stage human subjects but in doing so, her lifespan would be greatly affected, not expected to live beyond thirty years. In an effort to release her brother and her family from obligations to TTI, Media accepted the invitation to the marathons, marathons that would prove to be more challenging and revealing than she could have ever imagined. With each successive leg of the marathon, Media’s endurance, speed and power increase, raising red flags with the officials, competitors, and ultimately the world outside.

RUN LAB RAT RUN is a story of both speculative and science fiction wherein the modification of human DNA becomes the norm for the rich and famous, and the old ‘normals’ or non-modified humans are treated with disdain and discrimination, relegated to the slums and less than optimal living conditions. Open to the best of the best, the Modified Marathons is akin to the ‘Hunger Games’™ such that to win means to save the lives of the people back home. Working together, each team selected has a mentor, a coach, and a various modified human competitors. Many will die; aggression and individual targeting the norm; success is the exception to the rule especially in a world struggling with the affects of global warming and environmental disasters.

Shawn C Butler pulls the reader into a world of genetic enhancements and mutations, artificial intelligence, robots and implants. There are examples of anthropomorphism, super human strength and speed, backroom deals, manipulations, secrets and lies all in an effort to create the ultimate warrior –for good or evil.

RUN LAB RAT RUN is a cautionary tale; a complex, thought-provoking and twisted story of specieism and discrimination, competition, power and control. My only complaint would be the lack of background information regarding the Chrome Wars, the environmental disasters, and the history as to how and why the world of enhanced human modifications came to be.

RUN LAB RAT RUN ends on a bit of a cliff hanger-you have been warned.

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

TRC:  Hi Shawn and welcome to The Reading Café. Congratulations on the release of RUN LAB RAT RUN.

Shawn: Thanks!

TRC:  We would like to start with some background information. Would you please tell us something about yourself?

Follow: Website / Goodreads / Amazon Author Page / Facebook Twitter

Shawn:  I’ve spent most of my adult life in the tech space, fascinated by what technology can do to improve business and human lives. But I’ve never really seen myself as a technologist. What I love are solutions; finding ways to fix things that have been broken for years. What I soon realized about the high-tech industry is that solutions are secondary to profit, and that search for profit (while a vital part of capitalism) tends to create as many problems as it solves. Sometimes more.

I think I started writing to express my frustration with this, first blogging and then long-form work. Maybe if I do this right, I won’t go back into tech…but we’ll see. When not working, I love to hike and run, travel and generally be outdoors. Also, I love ice cream. It’s a good thing I run a lot.

TRC: Who or what influenced your career in writing?

Shawn:  I’d guess the usual answer is that I read a lot of science fiction when I was young, and that got me started. And that’s true. But what I loved about SF compared to other genres was that it was usually focused on envisioning challenges and then finding solutions. It’s like the crime fiction of the future. Here’s the body or challenge. Here are the available tools. Here’s what happens if you solve the problem, or if you fail. The fact that the challenge is often existential—alien invasion, meteors, plagues, raging cyborgs, just makes it all the more entertaining.

In parallel, I blog about ultra-running and long distance day hikes. It was kind of inevitable that I’d try to blend science fiction with the outdoors at some point. Run Lab Rat Run is that point.

TRC:  What challenges or difficulties did you encounter writing and publishing this story?

Shawn:  Run Lab Rat Run is based on three things. First, advances in genetic engineering that I see deriving from CRISPR—leading inevitably to designer babies. Second, ultrarunning super-athletes. And third, the Barkley Marathons, a real race that drives incomprehensibly fit and fantastic athletes to miserable fates. Finding a way to combine all three in a way that would appeal to the average SF reader was difficult. Most of us don’t care much about lactate thresholds or fartlek training. And I didn’t want the result to be a caricature future where silly people do silly things just to make the story interesting. I think I got it right, but we’ll see.

TRC:  Would you please tell us something about the premise of RUN LAB RAT RUN?

Shawn:  Recent developments in genetic engineering mean that we’ll have the ability to eliminate many genetic diseases within a few years. Soon after that, it’ll be possible to genetically alter animals almost at will. And then human modifications will follow. The rich will travel to less regulated countries and come back pregnant with enhanced babies. Monetary class and genetic caste will be inextricably linked.

Run Lab Rat Run is about the resulting hierarchical world, where the “modified” rule over impoverished and nearly obsolete “natural” human beings. It’s like Gattaca, with a lot more rules and a deadly race in the middle—a race that gives one company CEO the chance to do illegal tests away from corporate oversight, and one runner the chance to earn her freedom. If she doesn’t die in the process.

TRC:  What kind of research/plotting did you do, and how long did you spend researching /plotting before beginning RUN LAB RAT RUN?

Shawn:  I don’t write hard science fiction, but realism is important to me. So I researched enough to have a general working knowledge of all salient topics, and then asked more intelligent people to read what I’d created so it didn’t sound ludicrous. RLRR research was more about the history of racial discrimination and caste systems than about genetics, but I spent a good deal of time on both. A few months, probably, with a lot of ongoing research as I wrote the book.

TRC:  How much of the story line is based in science fact vs science fiction?

Shawn:  When I sat down to write RLRR, I wanted a book that was science fiction only in the sense that it was a possible view of our near future. All of the technology and technical advances are meant to be predictions of what I think will happen. They are not fantastical, but all based on what’s occurring today projected forward. The world of RLRR is meant to be the real world, just 50+ years from now.

I believe we are headed toward a class system based on levels of genetic and technical modification, and that designer babies will be here much sooner than we think. This is the Pandora’s Box opened by CRISPR and related genetic engineering systems.

The sole exceptions to my rule about realistic technologies in the book are the Black Hole Drones, which rely on a flight technology that seems fanciful at best.

TRC:  Believability is an important factor in writing and reading science fiction / speculative fiction. How do you keep the story line believable in a genre that crosses the line between reality and fantasy?

Shawn:  I guess the question is what you mean by “believable.” Run Lab Rat Run is based almost entirely on projected technology, so it’s not hard in this case. Other things I’m working on are a little more fantastical, but to me believability is about internal consistency and respecting the reader. Build your world completely and honestly. Tell your story without factual lapses, leaps of faith and plot holes, and I think most readers will come along for the ride. I never thought the world of, say, The Expanse was objectively believable, but once I accepted the world as defined, I was on board for the duration.

TRC:  Is RUN LAB RAT RUN part of a series or a stand-alone. ?

Shawn:  RLRR the first in a trilogy about this particular protagonist and snapshot in future time, but it’s also part of a larger Modified meta-series that starts “today” with Beasts of Sonara (due out later this year). The trilogy of RLRR can be read on its own, or with other books in the Modified universe, but it doesn’t matter what order you read them in.

TRC:  Do you believe the cover image plays a deciding factor for many readers in the process of selecting a book or new series to read?

Shawn:  I do. I’ve bought a lot of books over the years, and with many of them the cover was definitely part of the decision process. I don’t know if I’d every have read Larry Niven as a kid if not for the fantastical PAJ cover art. It’s not everything, of course, but it undeniably helps.

TRC:  When writing a storyline, do the characters direct the writing or do you direct the characters?

Shawn:  I think this has a lot to do with the planner vs. pantser question. I’d like to be more of a planner, doing nice outlines like bumpers the characters obey. But honestly, I write almost randomly to see what happens (including what the characters do), and then see if there’s a plot there. It’s not the most organized model in the world, but I get really bored and distracted following strict outlines.

TRC:  The mark of a good writer is to pull the reader into the storyline so that they experience the emotions along with the characters. What do you believe a writer must do to make this happen? Where do you believe writer’s fail in this endeavor?

Shawn:  This is different for all of us, but to me it’s about getting readers invested in a character or situation so they feel a connection to them. The stakes must feel personal, like of the way people attach themselves to football teams or other sports. And that only works if you create realistic people with character and flaws in situations with real stakes.

I suspect some writers fail at this when they make something so unrealistic or poorly structured that it’s impossible to sustain believability, and thus lose their trust and connection to what’s going on in the book. I remember thinking this about the book It, when the kids end up having an orgy in the sewer system (spoiler?). It was just so bizarre and unnecessary that it ruined my confidence in the author, the story and the characters. Not like Stephen King cares, of course, but what the heck?

TRC:  Do you listen to music while writing? If so, does the style of music influence the storyline direction? Characters?

Shawn:  I have in the past—usually techno, EDM or classical. I find music with lyrics distracting and for some reason a bit melancholy. Now I primarily try to write in coffee shops with ambient noise to help me concentrate, and forego the music. Also seems a bit less lonely. I don’t think the music ever impacted the storyline, but it might have impacted the energy level in some passages.

TRC:  What do you believe is the biggest misconception people have about authors?

Shawn:  I don’t know. Maybe the modern one is that most of them make money. It seems like almost no one does unless they’re very lucky. A second misconception is that any one “type” of person makes a good or bad author. Anyone, man or woman, Black or white, straight or gay, can write a great novel in any genre. I love seeing more diversity in what’s coming out.

TRC:  What is something that few, if anyone, know about you?

Shawn:  I once ate an entire raw white onion and chased it with a quart of orange juice. The result was like Coke + Mentos, except in my stomach and with more acid. When I exhaled, it smelled like burning plastic. It was not a pleasant experience. Not my brightest moment. Also, I am the Highlander.

TRC:  Who or what influenced your path towards science fiction?

Shawn:  I don’t know if it was a specific person or thing. When I was a kid, I’d stay up all night on weekends watching horror movies and science fiction. Then I read all the SF I could get my hands on, meaning the usual classics like Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein, Niven, etc. It was just what I loved. When I started writing, it never occurred to me to write anything else. I read a lot of mystery back in the day, too, so I’ll probably try my hand at mysteries in the future.

TRC: On what are you currently working?

Shawn:  I’m polishing Beasts of Sonara, which is due out in November. This is the first book in the modified universe, and a very distant prequel to RLRR. After that is a stand-alone sci-fi horror novel that’ll be…different. I can’t wait to see that one in print.

TRC:  Would you like to add anything else?

Shawn:  I can pretty much guarantee you Run Lab Rat Run is the best ultrarunning science fiction novel you’ll ever read.

LIGHTNING ROUND

Favorite Food

Salt and things covered in salt, with guacamole. And salt.

Favorite Dessert

Ice cream, German chocolate pie or hot cinnamon rolls.

Favorite TV Show

The Expanse? Honestly, any great bit of art whether it’s social commentary like Flea Bag, fantasy like the first season of Penny Dreadful or the first six seasons of Game of Thrones, etc. My favorite changes daily.

Last Movie You Saw

The last good movie was Palm Springs. Lots of nonsense since then.

Dark or Milk Chocolate

Yes, as long as they’re European.

Secret Celebrity Crush

Anna Kendrick. Not really a secret. Anna!!! Such a nerd, I am.

Last Vacation Destination

Denali National Park in Alaska.

Do you have any pets?

I have several house plants with minimal needs—pathos, the house cats of the plant world.

Last book you read

Hail Mary by Andy Weir, like everybody else. That’s great science fiction. Before that I had a weird month where I read all of the Jack Reacher novels. Still not sure what that was all about.

TRC:  Thank you Shawn for taking the time to answer our questions. Congratulations on the release of RUN LAB RAT RUN. We wish you all the best.

Share

The Reckoning by Marisa Noelle – Review & Tour

Posted on by
13

The Reckoning by Marisa Noelle – Review & Tour

 

Amazon / B&N / BAM / Book Depository

 

Description:
THE FIGHT IS NOT OVER.
A NEW NEMESIS HAS AWOKEN.

Sinister visions of an evil entity with looming yellow eyes haunt Silver’s dreams, threatening to destroy the new world she and her friends have created. The terrifying omens push Silver to experiment with her abilities, but awaken a burgeoning thirst for more power.

As Silver walks a fine line between good and evil, her friends become wary of her intimidating abilities. She finds understanding in a sympathetic newcomer, but their deepening friendship drives an even deeper wedge between Silver and her suspicious friends.

Tragedy strikes during preparations for the final stand, bringing a terrible choice. Grief drives Silver toward reckless actions that may doom the final battle. Can she repair the relationships with her friends and control her powers before her vision becomes reality?

 

 

Review:

The Reckoning by Marisa Noelle is the final book in her The Unadjusteds trilogy. Refresher:  The Unajusteds is a YA Dystopian story, with Silver Melody, our wonderful teenage heroine.  Silver is very strong, fast and has abilities that make her special. In a world with most people having been altered with enhancements, Silver was one of those that were unadjusted, but her powerful abilities continue to grow.

In the last book, Silver and the team managed to defeat the evil Earl, and rescue her mother (though she is still catatonic).  All Silver cares about the finding a way to use her healing power to bring her mother out of her unconscious state.  With her father away to find a woman who knows how to bring his wife out of the state she is in, Silver is determined to help her mother.  But things start happening, the crops and land are suffering, and they need Silver to help clean and heal the crops.  Besides working on her mother, Silver is having horrific dreams every night, and she is worried if these are just nightmares, or are they a vision of what is yet to come.

Silver begins to spend time with Eli (who was saved by Silver against his torture by Earl), as he convinces her to experiment together to increase and learn more about her powers.  As her powers begin to increase, even to some dangerous levels, Silver becomes more and more belligerent against her friends, since she just wants to help her mother, and experiment on her powers.  Her friends and the president become concerned at her reckless actions, and she turns more and more to Eli.  When the nightmares get more violent, especially the “yellow eyes”, she begins to realize that someone (Eli? Entity?)  is trying to steal her powers, and her visions are real.  Silver will need to ensure her friends and team that is she is herself again and they need to be ready for the upcoming battle that is forthcoming. I loved seeing most of her friends/team from the previous books, especially Matt.

What follows is an exciting and intense adventure that once again pits Silver and her friends against an evil powerful and dangerous entity, as well as the creatures, birds, animals, hellhounds they come across.   From start to finish, this was filled with action, danger, violence, with a number of tragic events along the way.   To tell too much more would be spoilers, and would ruin it for you.

The Reckoning was a very well written, intense, violent and emotional story line that held my attention throughout.   Marisa Noelle did a fabulous job giving us an exciting story, wonderful heroine (I loved Silver, as she made a great heroine) and great secondary characters. The ending was exciting, wild and emotional and a fitting finale; though it was definitely a surprise epilogue.  

Reviewed by Barb

Copy supplied for Review

Marisa Noelle is the writer of middle grade & young adult novels in the genres of science-fiction, fantasy & mental health including The Shadow Keepers, The Unadjusteds Trilogy (The Unadjusteds, The Rise of the Altereds, & The Reckoning), and The Mermaid Chronicles – Secrets of the Deep.
She is a mentor for the Write Mentor program that helps aspiring MG & YA authors. With dual citizenship, Marisa has lived on both sides of the Atlantic and uses settings in both the USA and UK as inspiration for her novels.
When she’s not writing or reading or watching movies, she enjoys swimming. In the pool she likes to imagine she could be a mermaid and become part of some of her make-believe words.
Despite being an avid bookworm from the time she could hold a book, being an author came as a bit of a surprise to her as she was a bit of a science geek at school. She lives in Woking, UK with her husband and three children. You can find her on Twitter @MarisaNoelle77 or her website www.MarisaNoelle.com

Follow her at:
Facebook: 
Instagram:
Twitter:
Goodreads :
Website :

Share

418: I Am A Teapot by Edgar Scott-a review

Posted on by
9

418: I Am A Teapot by Edgar Scott-a review

ebook ONLY 99¢ Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / Chapters Indigo / KOBO /

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date March 23, 2021

418: I Am a Teapot is a near-future dystopian science fiction novel that explores a world where people by choice, birth, or punishment, relinquish the rights to their physical body. Their brains exist in a constantly-connected virtual interface where they enjoy a fantasy world of endless indulgences. However, while their minds have fun, their bodies are controlled by implants doing the filthiest and most dangerous jobs known to humanity.

Stripped of their identities, these dredges of society are simply called staff and they are disposable. But what happens when a staff becomes cognizant of its situation and tries to break free?

When staff number 418’s physical body is broken, he must come to terms with reality before a kangaroo court determines his fate. Will an unlikely friendship save 418 from permanent retirement?

••••••••••

REVIEW:418: I AM A TEAPOT by Edgar Scott is a futuristic, dystopian, sci-fi story line focusing on ‘staff’ 418 aka George, and Brian ‘King’ Agarwal, who runs a staffing business.

Told from first person perspective (418) and third person (King) 418: I AM A TEAPOT follows 418 aka George between his daily routine as a staff, and his virtual persona online. Staff are considered the lowest of the low, either born into poverty and the lower class, or relegated by punishment to become one of the many minions to do the work that no one else wants to do but an accident, also known as an exception, finds 418 fighting for his life, a life that is about to change in many ways. Believed to be ‘brain damaged’ as a result of the exception, 418 is saved from ‘retirement’, and in the ensuing days and weeks quickly realizes that his virtual interface is no longer working as it should. Sentient, and with the ability to become self-aware, 418 begins to reconsider all that he knows, in both his virtual and real worlds. 418 works for King, and in this King is about to set 418 on a path to self-actualization and freedom from control. But all is not well in King’s once-ordered world when King finds himself facing the possibility of a life of outside control.

As mentioned above, staff are the lower class, the workers and minions who have been surgically and pharmaceutically altered as mindless drones to do the work no one else wants to do. While their minds and brains are connected to a virtual world, their bodies are controlled by artificial intelligence, and subjected to outside forces where death and dismemberment are frequent and considered part of the job-‘retirement’ is met with indifference by the people in charge. With his virtual interface working at less than optimal levels, George begins to re-evaluate the meaning of life, and his place in the world.

418: I AM A TEAPOT is, like many futuristic, dystopian, sci fi tales, a philosophical and sociological look at discrimination, power and control. I am not sure where geographically the story line takes place, or when, but the first names are all anglicized and the surnames are all East Indian in nature.

418:I AM A TEAPOT is another, complex and detailed story line of what ifs and hows but I struggled with the lack of delineation between perspectives that changed often and without preamble. A slow building story line, 418: I AM A TEAPOT does not pick up speed until part way through the book.

Copy supplied by Netgalley

Reviewed by Sandy

Share

The Rise of the Altereds by Marisa Noelle – a Review

Posted on by
11

The Rise of the Altereds by Marisa Noelle – a Review

 

Amazon / B&N / BAM / Book Depository

 

Description:
GENETIC MODIFICATION HAS BEEN OUTLAWED.

THE REMAINING ALTEREDS WANT REVENGE.

When Silver’s mother is abducted by a rogue scientist who releases a deadly new virus on the populace, she and her now unadjusted friends are faced with an impossible choice.

They can hide from the virus for as long as possible, or they can regain their abilities and take the battle to the mountains. But Silver doesn’t count on a new, rogue power growing within her. She can’t control it and soon all her friends are in danger. And there is something evil hiding in the snowy Sierras.

Can Silver learn to control her new, deadly power in time to rescue her mother as well as defeat the one who seeks to destroy them all?

 

 

Review:

The Rise of the Altereds by Marisa Noelle is the 2nd book in her The Unadjusteds trilogy.  When I read the first book, I wasn’t sure that there would be more, and I was happy to find out that this is now a trilogy.  Refresher:  The Unajusteds is a YA Dystopian story, with Silver Melody, our wonderful teenage heroine.  Silver is very strong, fast and has abilities that make her special. In a world with most people having been altered with enhancements, Silver was one of those that were unadjusted.  At the end of the last book, Silver and her friends defeated the President and freed those altered and unadjusted.

In The Rise of the Altereds, Silver’s father is working on a vaccine to fix those altered back to normal.  Silver, Matt, Paige, and the team is still together, but another evil presence has taken over the role of leader (Earl) using a virus that is killing everyone, as well as creating evil entities and creatures to destroy the world as they know it. Silver’s mother is still in captivity, and they all get together to try and rescue her mother. Silver’s father is able to give them back their altered abilities to help fight the horrors they will face. Silver is the most powerful of all of them, especially with an unknown dark ability that she has not learned how to use.  Along the way, Silver will pick up some more abilities just by touching someone, which includes seeing into the future. 

What follows is an exciting and intense adventure that once again pits Silver and her friends against so many dangerous situations, including making sure they do not catch the virus, as well as the creatures, birds, hellhounds they come across.   From start to finish, this was filled with action, danger, violence, as I held my breath to see who will survive.  To tell too much more would be spoilers, and ruin it for you.

The Rise of the Altereds was a very well written, intense and emotional story line that held my attention throughout.   Marisa Noelle did a fabulous job giving us an exciting story, wonderful heroine and great secondary characters. The ending was exciting, wild and emotional.  I loved Silver, as she made a great heroine. I look forward to the final book in this trilogy.  I wholly suggest if you like an action-packed dystopian theme, you should be reading this series.

Reviewed by Barb

Copy supplied for review

Share

Master’s Mistress (The Angel Eyes #1) by Jamie Schulz-a review

Posted on by
11

MASTER’S MISTRESS (The Angel Eyes #1) by Jamie Schulz

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / Amazon.uk / Amazon.au /

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date February 1, 2020

A man bound by chains. A woman burdened by regret. Will love set this tortured pair free?

In this nightmarish future where women own men, Bret Masters refuses to serve anyone. But after spending years evading slavers in the mountains of the Pacific Northwest, he’s furious when he’s finally caught and sold. So, although his mistress has a pretty face and deliciously tempting curves, he vows to escape.

Angel Aldridge hides her pain behind fences as sturdy and vast as her ranch. And even though her newly acquired slave is a ruggedly handsome cowboy, she’s not about to let her fantasies endanger the people she swore to protect. But between her always-watching enemies and her wounded heart, she’s reluctant to admit she may need him in more ways than one…

As the two toil side by side, Bret is surprised to discover Angel’s vulnerability and her compassionate nature. And the more time they spend together, the harder she finds it to resist her feelings and to soothe her lonely soul. But when they’re stranded alone together, the barriers between mistress and slave may not be strong enough to withstand their red-hot attraction.

Can Bret and Angel overcome their fears to sow the seeds of lasting love?

Masters’ Mistress is the steamy first book in The Angel Eyes futuristic dystopian cowboy romance series. If you like complex characters, gritty western settings, and slow-burning desires, then you’ll adore this enthralling story.

This is a planned six-book continuing series with cliffhangers and comes with trigger warnings for sexual situations and violence.

••••••••

REVIEW: MASTER’S MISTRESS is the first full-length (and second instalment) in Jamie Schulz’ adult, post-apocalyptic ANGEL EYES dystopian series. This is ranch owner Angel Aldridge, and Bret Masters’ story line. MASTER’S MISTRESS can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty but I recommend reading book one JAKE’S REDEMPTION for back story and cohesion.

NOTE: Due to the nature of the story line premise, there may be some triggers for more sensitive readers.

SOME BACKGROUND: Several years earlier a catastrophic war destroyed cities and towns throughout the world, and ‘changed the social order’ between men and women. In the ensuing aftermath, a second civil war between the sexes in America resulted in women becoming the dominant and controlling sex, while men were reduced to slaves to be used and abused.

Told from several third person perspectives including Bret and Angel MASTER’S MISTRESS follows the building but acrimonious relationship between ranch owner Angel Aldridge, and Bret Masters. Angel Aldridge doesn’t believe in the workings of the new matriarchal misogynistic system wherein men are nothing more than slaves to be used and abused. At a recent ‘auction’ of slaves and breeders, Jake Nichols (Jake’s Redemption .5) begs Angel Aldridge to buy his best friend Bret Masters, a man he hasn’t scene for close to five years. Angel knowing a desperate man when she sees one purchases Bret Master, only to discover Bret’s physical and emotional frailty is but the tip of the proverbial iceberg for a man who has suffered in his recent imprisonment, and in the past. As Bret’s strength and health begin to return his attitude towards Angel becomes combative and strong. What ensues is the back and forth, up and down, caustic relationship between Bret and Angel, as they navigate a world where Angel is the master and owner of a man who is beyond angry that he is still considered, by outsiders, a breeder and a slave.

In the new world order, Bret Masters is nothing more than a breeder and a slave. Wanted for his handsome looks and knowledge of running a ranch, Bret finds himself a hot commodity on the open market, a commodity that comes with demons from the past. Living and working at Angel Aldridge’s ranch does nothing but add to Bret’s already darkened view of his current situation, a situation he believes to be nothing more that a smoke-screen for slavery and more. Unable to see that his ‘imprisonment’ keeps him safe and alive, Bret refuses to consider or accept the world in which he now lives. Angel Aldridge is a woman whose past continues to control her present but her attraction to Bret is constantly dampened with each encounter with our story line hero. Never one to follow the rules, Angel pushes the boundaries of the current rules and regulations that keep men under the control of dangerous women, as she protects and treats her ‘property’ like family and friends. One of the few women who do not consider her property as slaves, Angel is respected by her workers, but threatened by the women who govern the state of the new world order.

The contemptuous relationship between Bret and Angel is fraught with issues of trust, betrayal, vengeance and lies. Bret is biding his time before he makes his escape but every planned attempt finds Bret having to ‘save’ his master from outside threats. Bret’s attraction to Angel is a battle between head and heart having experienced abuse and assault at the hands of someone he once loved. The back and forth petulant, acerbic and angry interactions between Bret and Angel were a bit much; accusations and threats preceded and ended almost every encounter. The one lone $ex scene was passionate and intense without the use of over the top, sexually graphic language and text.

Bret’s one-time best friend Jake Nichols returns, as well as Angel’s friend Monica Avery. Bret and Monica’s relationship has to be kept secret as they live in a world dominated by controlling women who frown on a loving relationship between a woman and a man. Bret is also ‘owned’ by our story line heroine.

MASTER’S MISTRESS is a heart breaking and emotional story line about a world destroyed by a spiteful few; a world wherein sins of the past control the present and the future; where a number of women are ensuring that men are no longer the dominant sex, or ever in control. The premise is entertaining and captivating; the characters are broken, angry, struggling and depressed; the romance struggles in the face of a world turned upside down. MASTER’S MISTRESS does not end with a happily ever after nor a happily ever after for now, but ends rather abruptly with more story to tell.

Click HERE for Sandy’s review of book one JAKE’S REDEMPTION

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

Share

The Last Mystic (Singularity #4) by Susan Kaye Quinn-a review

Posted on by
11

THE LAST MYSTIC (Singularity #4) by Susan Kaye Quinn-a review

 

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / KOBO / Google Play

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date January 7, 2020

What if you knew there was life after death?
Eli is back from the dead… and determined to stop the powerful ascenders who blasted him out to the void. But in the three days he was gone, the world moved on. The girl he loves is determined to build an army of augmented humans to fight the ascenders—with herself as the next Offering. The ascenders are lining up in a death cult based on the charismatic ascender Eli accidentally released from storage—and all the restraints that have kept the ascender world in balance are now off. Everyone is rushing to be the first to bring a Second Singularity—to reach the numinous world from which Eli just returned—regardless of the cost. And the chaos and bloodshed of the first Singularity show just how high that cost can be. How can he stop the world from hurtling off the cliff when he’s the one who proved there’s something to reach, if only you could learn how to fly?

••••••••••

REVIEW: THE LAST MYSTIC is the fourth and final instalment in Susan Kaye Quinn’s young adult SINGULARITY sci-fi/ dystopian series focusing on the merging of mind, body and soul with the technology of the future.

BACKGROUND: The ‘Singularity’ resulted in most of the world’s population transforming themselves into a hybrid known as the Ascended-part man/part machine but the few remaining humans become what is known as the Legacy-the true descendants of humankind. The Singularity series looks at the struggle between the Ascended and everyone else.

Told from first person perspective (Elijah Brighton) THE LAST MYSTIC continues to focus on the war between the Ascended and the Legacy. It has been prophesied that the world is approaching a second singularity whereby all of the human population will become the Ascended but Eli Brighton, once dead, but now resurrected, is the face of the resistance, a resistance that will soon discover the second singularity has already begun, with the help of Eli himself. As Eli continues to bridge between the living and the dead, the resistance is targeted by the ascenders, time and again.

Eli Brighton has the power of life and death, resurrection and renewal. With his ability to resurrect the dead, Eli’s friends realize that they are at the outset of a new world order.

THE LAST MYSTIC and the SINGULARITY series focuses on the mind, body, and soul: a spiritual storyline that questions the existence of God, and life after death; and if there is something beyond the here and now, where is it, and who will be in charge?. The ascended believe they no longer have a soul, a belief that will be questioned every time Eli enters the ‘fugue’ but Eli’s own death, resurrection and self-actualization becomes the benchmark by which everyone measures their own experience.

Susan Kaye Quinn pulls the reader into a fantastic world of speculative fiction using supernatural, paranormal, science, and futuristic concepts. A world of robotics and AI fused with the human mind allows for the possibility of immortality but at the cost of one’s soul. THE LAST MYSTIC is a fascinating and mesmerizing look at the possibility of the impossible.

Reading Order and Previous Reviews
The Legacy Human
The Duality Bridge
The Illusory Prophet
The Last Mystic

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

Share

Keystone by Katie Delahanty – a Review

Posted on by
11

Keystone by Katie Delahanty – a Review

 

Amazon / B&N / Kobo / BAM / Book Depository / Apple

 

Description:
When Ella Karman debuts on the Social Stock Exchange, she finds out life as a high-profile “Influencer” isn’t what she expected. Everyone around her is consumed by their rankings, in creating the smoke and mirrors that make them the envy of the world. But then Ella’s best friend betrays her, her rankings tank, and she loses—everything.

Leaving her old life behind, she joins Keystone, a secret school for thieves, where students are being trained to steal everything analog and original because something—or someone—is changing history to suit their needs.

Partnered with the annoyingly hot—and utterly impossible—Garrett Alexander, who has plenty of his own secrets, Ella is forced to return to the Influencer world, while unraveling a conspiracy that began decades ago.

One wrong move and she could lose everything—again.

 

 Review:

Keystone by Katie Delahanty is a little different from what I usually read. It’s basically a story of social media gone mad!! From birth you are put on a social platform, your whole life is for public viewing, the more views you get, the more adulation you get. If your at the top of the “social stock exchange” then there is nothing you won’t do to stay there…..

Once you get use to the jumping from past to present it an interesting read. Ella is the product of a social moment (no love) her “parents” did it to provide themselves with more ratings.

And when Ella meets a young man, (but that’s not in her timeline yet,) he has to go, and Ella is punished!! 

Meeting social outcasts (or disconnects) Ella realises there is more to life than popping your life out there for all to view. And they take her to Keystone…..

Keystone is like a school for thieves. And Ella is totally out of her comfort zone. The school needs to prove to the world that someone is out to change the past. Why? And for what gain? So they steal analogue (books and anything that’s not digital) 

The interaction between Garrett and Ella (she’s now called Elisha) is fun to read, their bickering will surely lead to something, (even thoughts has a girlfriend) and finding true friends, but the fake friends she had outside of Keystone. 

All this makes good reading. And all the secrets everyone has. What is Garrett hiding? Will Ella tell him about her parentage? 

With the cliffhanger ending, you know I’m going to need the answer….. 

Reviewed by Julie B

Copy provided by Publisher

Share