Tag Archives: Book Review

Finding Gobi by Dion Leonard

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Finding GobiTITLE: Finding Gobi
AUTHOR: Dion Leonard

RATING OVERVIEW
Writing: ★★★★★
Story: ★★★★★
Characters: ★★★★★
Appearance: ★★★★★
Overall: ★★★★★ (5)

AMAZON DESCRIPTION:
Bring home the incredible true story of a friendship so strong that it crosses the globe! You will love the inspiring tale of Gobi, a lost dog who kept pace with an ultramarathon runner, Dion Leonard, across a vast desert. Follow their unlikely friendship through the challenges of an 80-mile race and Dion’s struggle to bring Gobi home for good.

Finding Gobi: The True Story of One Little Dog’s Big Journey is the incredible true story of Dion Leonard, a New York Times bestselling author and athlete, who was befriended by a stray dog while running an ultramarathon through the Gobi Desert. Named for the desert in which he found her, Gobi became Dion’s closest companion for 77 miles of the 155-mile race across China. The scrappy little pup ran mile after mile alongside Dion, through treacherous conditions and across raging rivers. He let her sleep in his tent and share his food, and eventually, his focus shifted from winning to the newfound friendship he and Gobi shared.

They crossed the finish line together—not first, but together—and Dion decided to bring Gobi home to Scotland. Just before they were about to leave, however, Gobi disappeared, setting off a worldwide search for the stray. In a town of more than 3 million people, the search seemed hopeless, but this tale of friendship will surprise and delight you as you find out what happens!

Join the almost too-good-to-be-true story of hope, friendship, and beating incredible odds in Finding Gobi: The True Story of One Little Dog’s Big Journey by Dion Leonard.

Buy the book HERE! 

The Critical Points:
Finding Gobi is the true story of one little dog’s big journey, written by Dion Leonard.

WRITING: I read this book with my 11-year-old son, as part of our mother/son book club. I had never heard about Gobi or the story that went global, but was pleasantly surprised to find that I really enjoyed the book. My son enjoyed the book as well. I love the fact that Dion Leonard not only wrote his story, he chose to write a children’s version too. I don’t think my son would have made it through the longer version, but the Young Reader’s Edition was perfect for him.

I highly recommend this book. The young readers’ edition is perfect for readers of all ages from children to those young-at-heart. The sections written in Gobi’s perspective are very endearing and sweet.

STORY: You just can’t go wrong with a true story of a man and his dog. Much less one that carries the reader around the world on an epic adventure of friendship, heartache, and eventually a joyous reunion. Did I give away too much?

CHARACTERS: Gobi and Dion aren’t really characters… they are the real life dog and dog owner. So, I can’t judge the character development as everything that happens in Finding Gobi is true to life.

APPEARANCE: The cover shows a cute image of Gobi, trotting along across a map… showing, through the image, the journey she must have taken.

MY FAVORITE QUOTE:
“They say it takes a village to raise a child. I think it takes almost half a planet to rescue a dog.”

Check out my YouTube channel and the video review below… and make sure you hit subscribe so you never miss a video.

https://youtu.be/Q6O2HcuYqw8

On Golden Pond by Ernest Thompson

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Golden Pond

PLAY TITLE: On Golden Pond
AUTHOR: Ernest Thompson

RATING OVERVIEW
Writing: ★★★★★
Story: ★★★★★
Characters: ★★★★★
Appearance: ★★★★
Overall: ★★★★★ (4.75)

AMAZON DESCRIPTION:
A comedy for a cast of 3 men, 2 women, 1 boy. This is the love story of Ethel and Norman Thayer, who are returning to their summer home on Golden Pond for the forty-eighth year. He is a retired professor, nearing eighty, with heart palpitations and a failing memory-but still as tart-tongued, observant and eager for life as ever. Ethel, ten years younger, and the perfect foil for Norman, delights in all the small things that have enriched and continue to enrich their long life together. They are visited by their divorced, middle-aged daughter and her dentist fiancé, who then go off to Europe, leaving his teenage son behind for the summer. The boy quickly becomes the “grandchild” the elderly couple have longed for, and as Norman revels in taking his ward fishing and thrusting good books at him, he also learns some lessons about modern teenage awareness-and slang-in return. In the end, as the summer wanes, so does their brief idyll, and in the final, deeply moving moments of the play, Norman and Ethel are brought even closer together by the incidence of a mild heart attack. Time, they know, is now against them, but the years have been good and, perhaps, another summer on Golden Pond still awaits.

Buy the play HERE!

Buy the movie HERE!
MY 2 CENTS: 
On Golden Pond is a classic. The way that Thompson brings these characters to live is simply beautiful. It’s about life, relationships, and the heart.

I love when an author like Thompson can take a simple story, a retired couple spending the summer at their lake house, and turn it into so much more. By the end of the script, you’re emotionally attached to the characters, you care what happens to them, and you long to learn more about them.

The father/daughter relationship between Norman and Chelsea is heartbreaking. In just the few scenes in which they are together, it is obvious how much they love each other… how much they want to be close… and yet, they aren’t. It isn’t until Chelsea brings Billy, her boyfriend’s son, to visit her parents that Norman finally bonds with a child. It’s just said that it wasn’t his own child.

The husband/wife relationship between Norman and Ethel is exactly what I believe my grandparents had. They lived a similar life and were not only each other’s best friends, but they were soul mates. They were perfect together in every way. I believe that Thompson wrote their relationship to be perfect… almost to perfect, but not unbelievable in any way.

As an actress, reading this script has just added two characters to my list of dream roles I’d love to play. If I ever get the chance, in the next few years to audition for Chelsea, I will not let it pass me by, and of course… Ethel would be a dream role when I get older.

As a director, I have to be honest… I think it would be hard knowing how emotionally connected I am with the characters. I think I’d want to be on stage too much to do justice as a director.

APPEARANCE: Plain green cover with black text… Typical Dramatists Play Service cover. I feel like the plain cover allows the reader to use their imagination when envisioning the characters.

MY FAVORITE QUOTES:
“Sometimes you have to look hard at a person and remember he’s doing the best he can. He’s just trying to find his way, just like you.”

“Well, that’s what happens if you live long enough: You end up being old. it’s one of the disadvantages of a long life. I still prefer it to the alternative.” 

Check out my YouTube channel and the video review below… and make sure you hit subscribe so you never miss a video.

 

on golden pond movie posterMovie Title: On Golden Pond
Director: Mark Rydell
Stars: Katharine Hepburn (Ethel Thayer), Henry Fonda (Norman Thayer Jr.), and Jane Fonda (Chelsea Thayer Wayne)

STORYLINE: The loons are back again on Golden Pond and so are Norman Thayer, a retired professor, and Ethel who have had a summer cottage there since early in their marriage. This summer their daughter Chelsea — whom they haven’t seen for years — feels she must be there for Norman’s birthday. She and her fiancé are on their way to Europe the next day but will be back in a couple of weeks to pick up the fiancé’s son. When she returns Chelsea is married and her stepson has the relationship with her father that she always wanted. Will father and daughter be able to communicate at last? (IMDB.COM)

Watch the official movie trailers here:

https://youtu.be/l-lcl2j3yf0

https://youtu.be/Y85sfYVOS84

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

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TITLE: Of Mice and Men
AUTHOR: John Steinbeck

RATING OVERVIEW
Writing: ★★★★
Story: ★★★★
Characters: ★★★★★
Overall: ★★★★★ (4.33)

 

AMAZON DESCRIPTION:
A controversial tale of friendship and tragedy during the Great Depression.

They are an unlikely pair: George is “small and quick and dark of face”; Lennie, a man of tremendous size, has the mind of a young child. Yet they have formed a “family,” clinging together in the face of loneliness and alienation.

Laborers in California’s dusty vegetable fields, they hustle work when they can, living a hand-to-mouth existence. For George and Lennie have a plan: to own an acre of land and a shack they can call their own. When they land jobs on a ranch in the Salinas Valley, the fulfillment of their dream seems to be within their grasp. But even George cannot guard Lennie from the provocations of a flirtatious woman, nor predict the consequences of Lennie’s unswerving obedience to the things George taught him.

“A thriller, a gripping tale . . . that you will not set down until it is finished. Steinbeck has touched the quick.” —The New York Times

Buy the book HERE!

Buy the play HERE! 

Buy the movie HERE! 

The Critical Points:
I picked up this book because of a recommendation by one of my youtube viewers. So, if you haven’t checked out my youtube reviews, make sure you check out the page HERE.

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, winner of the Nobel Prize in literature, was originally published in 1937. A lot has changed in literature and society since 1937…

With that said, let’s get into the guts of this story and my opinion of it. Just a warning… there will be spoilers in this review.

WRITING: Of Mice and Men is a classic, read in many high schools across the country, although I don’t believe I ever read it in school. Although I never read the novel, until now, I had read the play while studying theatre in college.

I can understand why the novel received the Nobel Prize in Literature, but I have to admit that it wasn’t my favorite of Steinbeck’s novels. The writing style, although probably a good example of the time period, was choppy and repetitive. I found the excessive foul language to be distracting and often unnecessary.

STORY: The story is beautiful. It is the relationship between two men, George and Lennie, an unlikely pair of friends. George takes care of Lennie, who is mentally challenged, as they travel the country looking for work on farms. Their goal… or rather, their dream, is to one day own some land of their own. However, Lennie is continually getting into trouble causing them to have to pick up and move at a moment’s notice, which in turn makes it difficult for them to save up the money for the land they hope to purchase.

CHARACTERS: George is a small, caring man, who looks after Lennie like he is more than just a friend, as if he is a brother. Lennie is a rather large and very strong, mentally challenged man who doesn’t know his own strength. He doesn’t know how to think for himself and as a result relies on George to tell him what to do and how to react to situations. When left to his own devices, Lennie reacts physically and is unable to control himself, hence killing the mice he keeps hidden in his pocket, or the puppy he so desperately wanted to pet. Although, it isn’t until he kills his boss’ wife that George realizes that he has to stop covering for Lennie and make the hard decision of letting him go.

The final scene of the book is heart wrenching, emotionally draining, and sad. It was also predictable, but that didn’t in any way dampen the emotional affect of the scene when reading it.

MY FAVORITE QUOTES:
“I seen hunderds of men come by on the road an’ on the ranches, with their bindles on their back an’ that same damn thing in their heads. Hunderds of them. They come, an’ they quit an’ go on; an’ every damn one of em’s got a little piece of land in his head. An’ never a God damn one of em ever gets it. Just like heaven. Ever’body wants a little piece of lan’. I read plenty of books out here. Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land. It’s just in their head.” ~ Of Mice and Men

Check out my YouTube channel and the video review below… and make sure you hit subscribe so you never miss a video.

https://youtu.be/bqh5T4fIBbg

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of mice

MOVIE DETAILS
Title: Of Mice and Men
Director: Gary Sinise
Screenplay Written by: Horton Foote
Stars: John Malkovich (Lennie) and Gary Sinise (George)

 

Check out the official movie trailer here:

https://youtu.be/BQtiStdDaYw

 

Silent Sky by Lauren Gunderson

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Silent Sky

PLAY TITLE: Silent Sky
AUTHOR: Lauren Gunderson

RATING OVERVIEW
Writing: ★★★★★
Story: ★★★★★
Characters: ★★★★★
Appearance: ★★★★
Overall: ★★★★★ (4.75)

AMAZON DESCRIPTION:
When Henrietta Leavitt begins work at the Harvard Observatory in the early 1900s, she isn’t allowed to touch a telescope or express an original idea. Instead, she joins a group of women “computers,” charting the stars for a renowned astronomer who calculates projects in “girl hours” and has no time for the women’s probing theories. As Henrietta, in her free time, attempts to measure the light and distance of stars, she must also take measure of her life on Earth, trying to balance her dedication to science with family obligations and the possibility of love. The true story of 19th-century astronomer Henrietta Leavitt explores a woman’s place in society during a time of immense scientific discoveries, when women’s ideas were dismissed until men claimed credit for them. Social progress, like scientific progress, can be hard to see when one is trapped among earthly complications; Henrietta Leavitt and her female peers believe in both, and their dedication changed the way we understand both the heavens and Earth.

Buy it HERE on Amazon!

My 2 Cents: 
This is a beautiful play about one of the first women who worked in the field of astronomy. The reader (or audience if seeing the play life) get to see how she balances, or fails to balance, life while still pursuing her dream of reaching for the stars. It is intelligent, artistic, heart wrenching, and emotionally moving.

I started reading this play with no knowledge of what it was about other than that it had to do with female astronomers, or ‘computers’ as they were called back in the early 1900s. I was happy to find that it was not only beautifully written with humor woven throughout the story, but it avoided the typical traps stories like this often fall into such as only focusing on the negative aspects of women in what is considered a “man’s world”, over dramatizing work and home life balance… or lack thereof, or not sharing all aspects of the story such as family/science/and love… there is room for it all and I believe that Gunderson successfully brought it all together.

CHARACTERS: Through her writing, Gunderson brings to life each of the five characters in such a beautiful way. They each have their own history, their own desires, and their own goals. Life ends up differently for each of them, and as with our lead character, Henrietta, they all experience

  • Henrietta Leavitt
  • Margaret Leavitt
  • Peter Shaw
  • Annie Cannon
  • Williamina Fleming

APPEARANCE: it’s a plain colored cover, in this case blue, with black lettering, typical of a Dramatists Play Service playbook. I personally prefer this style of cover for plays because I want the writing to tell me what the characters look like, rather than an image on the cover.

MY FAVORITE QUOTES:
“I used to think that to be truly alive I needed answers. I needed to know. But all this does not in fact need to be known, does it? We do. Because the real point… is seeing something bigger. And knowing we’re a small part of it, if we’re lucky. In the end that is a life well-lived.” ~ Henrietta in Silent Sky

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HL

Henrietta Leavitt, (born July 4, 1868, Lancaster, Massachusetts, U.S.—died December 12, 1921, Cambridge, Massachusetts), was one of the first female American astronomers. She was known for her discovery of the relationship between period and luminosity in Cepheids, pulsating stars. 

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Check out my YouTube channel and the video review below… and make sure you hit subscribe so you never miss a video.

https://youtu.be/o4UV_YOR7Qk

Final Girls by Riley Sager

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TITLE: Final Girls
AUTHOR: Riley Sager

RATING OVERVIEW
Writing: ★★★★★
Story: ★★★★★
Characters: ★★★★★
Appearance: ★★★★★
Overall: ★★★★★ (5)

 

AMAZON DESCRIPTION:
Ten years ago, college student Quincy Carpenter went on vacation with five friends and came back alone, the only survivor of a horror movie–scale massacre. In an instant, she became a member of a club no one wants to belong to—a group of similar survivors known in the press as the Final Girls: Lisa, who lost nine sorority sisters to a college dropout’s knife; Sam, who went up against the Sack Man during her shift at the Nightlight Inn; and now Quincy, who ran bleeding through the woods to escape Pine Cottage and the man she refers to only as Him. The three girls are all attempting to put their nightmares behind them and, with that, one another. Despite the media’s attempts, they never meet.

Now, Quincy is doing well—maybe even great, thanks to her Xanax prescription. She has a caring almost-fiancé, Jeff; a popular baking blog; a beautiful apartment; and a therapeutic presence in Coop, the police officer who saved her life all those years ago. Her memory won’t even allow her to recall the events of that night; the past is in the past.

That is until Lisa, the first Final Girl, is found dead in her bathtub, wrists slit; and Sam, the second Final Girl, appears on Quincy’s doorstep. Blowing through Quincy’s life-like a whirlwind, Sam seems intent on making Quincy relive the past, with increasingly dire consequences, all of which makes Quincy question why Sam is really seeking her out. And when new details about Lisa’s death come to light, Quincy’s life becomes a race against time as she tries to unravel Sam’s truths from her lies, evade the police and hungry reporters, and, most crucially, remember what really happened at Pine Cottage, before what was started ten years ago is finished.

Buy it HERE on Amazon!

THE CRITICAL POINTS:
I don’t usually give a 5 out of 5 review, but this book was exceptional!!!

WARNING… SPOILER ALERT… WARNING… SPOILER ALERT… WARNING

WRITING: Final Girls is the first psychological thriller by Riley Sager, a pseudonym for an author who has previously published under another name. IF YOU KNOW HIS REAL NAME… PLEASE SHARE IT WITH ME!!! I’d love to check out some of his other novels.

Sager’s writing is detailed, descriptive, and draws you in while leaving you on the edge of your seat. Once I started, I couldn’t stop reading… this is one you are not going to want to put down!

STORY: WOW… It has been a very long time since I read a story that completely came full circle and left no plot holes, unanswered questions, or room to doubt the author’s choices. This was a beautifully constructed story with plot twists that leave you amazed.

The thing I loved best about this novel is that it is literally two stories in one… intertwined as if folded into each other. The numbered chapters are present day and the non-numbered chapters, marked with the time in which they related to ‘Pine Cottage’ a pivotal moment in our lead character’s life, are all past events. Sager beautifully merges these two-time periods to allow use to glimpse just enough of the past that we don’t figure out all the secrets the story has in store, until the perfect moment. There are hints and clues along with way, some leading you astray and others foreshadowing the future. I’m not going to lie, I had a ‘Sixth Sense’ moment there at the end wondering why I didn’t see it all along… the reason, because Sager is just that good!

CHARACTERS: Not only were our main characters Quincy, Sam, Coop, and Jeff flushed out to the point that we felt we knew them, even the side characters; Janelle, Craig, Betz, Amy, Rodney, and Lisa all had complete stories and character development.

APPEARANCE: The cover is simple, the back of a woman’s head – I assume it’s Quincy, our lead character, but it could just as easily be Lisa or Sam. The blood read lettering is perfect for the psychological thriller theme and the knife wounds that replace the I’s are perfect and well thought out. Congrats to the cover artist, who obviously understood the feel the author was going for.

MY FAVORITE QUOTES:
“You can’t change what’s happened. The only thing you can control is how you deal with it.”

“Final Girl is film-geek speak for the last woman standing at the end of a horror movie.”

Check out my YouTube channel and the video review below… and make sure you hit subscribe so you never miss a video.

https://youtu.be/1wCE8omnHAE

Girl of Nightmares by Kendare Blake

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GIRL

TITLE: Girl of Nightmares
AUTHOR: Kendare Blake

RATING OVERVIEW
Writing: ★★★★
Story: ★★★★
Characters: ★★★★
Appearance: ★★★★
Overall: ★★★★ (4.)

 

AMAZON DESCRIPTION:
Girl of Nightmares, the acclaimed sequel to Kendare Blake’s Anna Dressed in Blood.
It’s been months since the ghost of Anna Korlov opened a door to Hell in her basement and disappeared into it, but ghost-hunter Cas Lowood can’t move on.

His friends remind him that Anna sacrificed herself so that Cas could live―not walk around half dead. He knows they’re right, but in Cas’s eyes, no living girl he meets can compare to the dead girl he fell in love with.

Now he’s seeing Anna everywhere: sometimes when he’s asleep and sometimes in waking nightmares. But something is very wrong…these aren’t just daydreams. Anna seems tortured, torn apart in new and ever more gruesome ways every time she appears.

Cas doesn’t know what happened to Anna when she disappeared into Hell, but he knows she doesn’t deserve whatever is happening to her now. Anna saved Cas more than once, and it’s time for him to return the favor.

Buy it HERE on Amazon! 

The Critical Points:
This is the second and final book in the Anna Dressed In Blood series. Last week I talked about Anna Dressed In Blood, and if you saw that review you know I loved that it.

WRITING: Blake’s writing style is very fluid and easy to read. This was a quick read, I think it took me three days to finish. With that said, I did feel like Blake struggled a little with getting through this story, or maybe figuring out where it was supposed to go. It didn’t feel as well planned as the first book did.

STORY: This is a continuation of the story found in Anna Dressed in Blood, and picks up shortly after that book ended. Although I really enjoyed the first book, I have to say I felt a bit let down by this one.

CHARACTERS: Cas, who I loved in the previous book, came across more as a whiney kid in this one. He was always complaining when he didn’t get his way, or focusing on the negative instead of showing the strength and confidence he had in the first book. I also didn’t really care for the new character we meet… the mysterious Jestine who for whatever reason has to save the day. No, I won’t give any spoilers, but I will say this, I don’t like it when authors feel the need to save the female lead with a pop-up male character, well, I don’t like it when a pop-up female character has to jump in and save the male either.

APPEARANCE: Like the cover of Anna Dressed In Blood, this one is also very beautiful, and whimsical. Yet, surrounded by fire is evokes more fear than the previous cover did. The hit of romance is gone and the truth behind the veil of death is revealed. The cover for Girl of Nightmares perfectly portrays the feel I believe Blake was going for when she wrote this story.

MY FAVORITE QUOTES:
“Every time I question him about the feasibility, he smiles at me like he’s Yoda and I’m just a dumbass without the Force.”

“Everyone seems to know more than I do, and being on the shallow end of the information pool is starting to piss me off.”

“It’s true what they say about answers only leading to more questions. There will always be more to find out, more to learn, more to do.”

“…I kiss her, one time, and try to tell her in that single gesture everything that she’ll forget as soon as she turns away. I tell her I love her. I tell her I’ll miss her. And then I let her go.”

Check out my YouTube channel and the video review below… and make sure you hit subscribe so you never miss a video.

https://youtu.be/mC_9HhI3v0U

Anna Dressed In Blood by Kendare Blake

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Would you prefer to watch the video review, instead of reading it? CLICK HEREAnna

TITLE: Anna Dressed In Blood
AUTHOR: Kendare Blake

RATING OVERVIEW
Writing: ★★★★★
Story: ★★★★
Characters: ★★★★★
Appearance: ★★★★★
Overall: ★★★★★ (4.75)

 

AMAZON DESCRIPTION:
Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.

So did his father before him, until he was gruesomely murdered by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father’s mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. They follow legends and local lore, destroy the murderous dead, and keep pesky things like the future and friends at bay.

Searching for a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas expects the usual: track, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he’s never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, now stained red and dripping with blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.

Yet she spares Cas’s life.

Buy it HERE on Amazon!

The Critical Points:
This book has been sitting on my shelf for a while now. I’m not really sure why I hadn’t read it before now. I’ve loved the cover since it was given to me but just never felt compelled to read it. I’m so glad that I finally did. A couple weeks ago, I was in the mood for ghost stories, which is why I started reading 20th Century Ghosts. Well, when that one left me feeling less than excited, I decided to pick up Anna Dressed In Blood which promised a ghost dressed in Blood. I was crossing my fingers that I wouldn’t be let down again.

WRITING: Kendare Blake has a very easy, fluid writing style. Anna Dressed in Blood was a fast read that left very few questions unanswered. It is full of adventure, awkward teens, death, and although it’s not a love story, that’s in there too.

STORY: Just your average boy-meets-girl, girl-kills-people story…
Actually, there is nothing average about this story. It’s a fun coming of age Young Adult story of a teenage ghost hunter who finally finds his tribe.

CHARACTERS: Every character, at least the important ones, are fleshed out to the point where you feel like you know them. Blake has a beautiful way of bringing unlikely friends together and making it feel completely natural. You care for Cas, Thomas, and Carmel and when things don’t go their way, it hurts. Sure, there are some untimely deaths (I won’t tell you who or how), but in a ghost hunting story, there has to be… Don’t worry, she kills the right characters.

APPEARANCE: I wish I knew who designed the cover, but unfortunately it isn’t written on the copywrite page. The cover, which shows Anna standing outside of her Victorian home, is actually foreshadowing what happens in the book. It is beautiful, whimsical, and romantic and perfectly portrays the feel of the story that Blake has created.

MY FAVORITE QUOTE:
I had a hard time coming up with a favorite quote from this one. Let me explain, typically, I find my favorite quote(s) while I’m reading. Something will just hit me and I’ll love it and either highlight it or write it down. But, with Anna Dressed In Blood, I was so engrossed in the story that I didn’t think about the fact that I needed to find my favorite quote. I was lost in the world Blake had created. Trust me, that’s a very good thing.

So, I had to go back… thumb through the pages to see if I could find a quote that stood out. Of course, I did.

“Until a few weeks ago, none of this was real.”

It’s a simple little quote, and seemingly means nothing without the context of what was around it. However, I like it because its true for any book of fiction you pick up. None of it is real… yet if it is written well, it feels so real. The characters feel like they have come to life on the pages and it is sad and painful when you have to let them go at the end of the story.

OK, one more favorite quote… just for fun:

“But hey, at least we’ll have this strange story to tell, love and death and blood and daddy-issues. And holy crap, I’m a psychiatrist’s wet dream.”

Check out my YouTube channel and the video review below… and make sure you hit subscribe so you never miss a video.

https://youtu.be/c_CXEXBZheQ

NEXT WEEK’S #FRIDAYREADS SELECTION: GIRL OF NIGHTMARES by KENDARE BLAKE The second (and final) book in the Anna Dressed In Blood series.

GIRL

A Door to Our Minds

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bookTITLE: A Door to Our Minds
AUTHORS: Lilly Brown, Bethany Martin, Jordan E. Lasater, Brenton Porter, and Bearcina

RATING OVERVIEW
Writing: ★★★★
Stories: ★★★★
Characters: ★★★★
Appearance: ★★★★
Overall: ★★★★ (4)

AMAZON DESCRIPTION:
Take a journey through the minds of five young, teenage, aspiring authors with this exciting anthology of short stories. You’ll start in a world not too different from our own, where a group of teens are undergoing a deadly quest to bring peace to their land in The Spark. Then, you’ll meet two curious young adults and follow them as they uncover the mysteries of several unsolved disappearances in The Peculiar Case of Matthias Chase. In There is Love in War, you’ll be thrown into a world full of werewolves, griffons, Gods and Goddesses. Next, you’ll travel back in time to a realm where medieval guardsmen fought with swords and bow and arrow to protect their Emperor from building threats in The Trials of Gebhuza. Finally, you’ll travel light-years away, to the endless depths of space in Years in a Blink, where a raging war on the small planet of Rainmia has forever changed the life of young Artemia and set her on a scientific course and a lifelong journey.

Buy it HERE on Amazon!

INSIDE THE COVER:
First let me start by saying that I had my hand in this book as well. Although I am not one of the authors, I did help them through the process. This group of amazing teen authors took their stories from concept to publication, a task that many would love to achieve. I am beyond proud of all five of them and am so honored that I was able to go on this journey with them. It is there first published work and I am looking forward to seeing how the grow as authors from this to the next.

WRITING: I won’t discuss each of the stories or authors separately, but what I will say is that they are developing authors who are learning to express themselves through their unique voices. There is true talent in these pages and I have a feeling this is not the last we will hear from them.

STORIES: This collection contained 5 short stories as you will see below.

The Spark, by Lilly Brown
During the brutal war over the Flame throne, a prophecy was delivered forever changing the lives of Elyse, James, Beth, Dan, and Reese. Even as children they were charged with the responsibilities of being named the Prophecy Warriors. Now, eleven years later, the prophecy has come to bare truth and these noble five must fight to save their country before it is ripped apart at the seams. Not all will survive, but if they can band together long enough to fulfill their birthright then their losses will not be in vain.

The Peculiar Case of Matthias Chase, by Bethany Martin
MATTHIAS CHASE, a small-town Golden Boy, has been missing for three days. With little evidence and no leads, the local detectives are getting nowhere. However, Aiden Altoviti, who recently graduated in Matthias’s class, has become quite invested in the case. With the help of his best friend, Bexley Craig, they uncover some strange details that tie Matthias’ disappearance to cases long in the past.

Unexplainable events continue to happen to Aiden and Bexley, causing them to believe there is so much more to the case than meets the eye. With unknown forces working against them, the teens find fiction and reality blurring together. Aiden and Bexley quickly piece things together, but Matthias’s time is running out. Perhaps Aiden and Bexley can get there in time to save Matthias. However, fate might have other plans for him.

There is Love in War, by Jordan E. Lasater
Have you ever loved someone so desperately but knew in your heart you couldn’t be with them? Love in War is a crazy tale full of werewolves, griffons, Gods, and Goddesses. Two star crossed lovers, Luna and Cyrus, try to make a life together, only to be pulled worlds apart. Surrounded by death and war, their souls get torn apart life after life. Is trying even worth it? After all he is just a boy and she is just a girl. Or are they?

The Trials of Gebhuza, by Brenton Porter
Amerellius and Amy are just two ordinary citizens serving the empire and living a normal life. That all changes when the emperor comes to town. After a failed attempt to take the emperor’s life, the Gebhuza, an elite force, is tasked with protecting the emperor and his empire from any and all threats. The time to put that force to use comes sooner than expected when trouble brews within the kingdom’s borders. Can Amerellius and Amy lead the Gebhuza and save the kingdom from utter desolation or will it fall in flames?

Years in a Blink, by Bearcina
Billions of Lightyears away, something- or someone- may just be screaming out in the endless depth of space, and you just can’t hear it.

A war raged across a lone little planet called Rainmia, and caught in the middle of it was a Betta named Artemia. She yearned for vengeance on a planet to be long forgotten in the eternity of time. Now, the Betta is much older, with her own laboratory that hosts the Universe’s best technology and brightest minds. Princess Persephone happens to get caught up in this mess right alongside Artemia.

Just remember, no one can hear you scream.

CHARACTERS: Again, not going to dive into each of the stories, but considering these are all short stories, I believe the authors did a beautiful job of giving us back story and just enough character development to care.

APPEARANCE: The cover, which was designed by Contagious Covers, is beautiful, whimsical, and draws you in before you even turn it over to read the back. Within the pages of the anthology, each story has its own cover as well. These interior story covers were created by Amanda Orneck with input from the authors themselves. I believe she did a wonderful job capturing the feel of each story.

MY FAVORITE QUOTES:
“You’ve proven you can beat is alone, but we were trained to fight together. How can you stand against two of us?” ~ Reese in The Spark

“Yeah, I’m great. I absolutely love getting thrown against trees, this is the highlight of my day.” ~ Bexley in The Peculiar Case of Matthias Chase

“That’s very generous of you, but I’m giving you one last chance to hand her over – and I promise to make it quick when I kill all of your men.” ~ Princess Luna in There is Love in War

“If there is any more knocking, the door might just break.” ~ Amerellius in Trials of Gebhuza

“Panther, listen, that’s not going to reverse the sulfuric poisoning. I don’t care what kinds of miracle medicine she so called, needs; she can’t wake up, or she’ll die.” ~ Riddley in Years in a Blink

Check out my YouTube channel and the video review below… and make sure you hit subscribe so you never miss a video.

https://youtu.be/cc3MZW5uuM0

Week 2 – #WritingWednesday Challenge

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Today is the second edition of #WritingWednesday!!!

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Remember, #WritingWednesday is an easy, stress-free, weekly writing challenge. Just read the writing prompt below, then spend 5 minutes writing whatever comes to mind. DON’T EDIT what you write! IT DOES NOT HAVE TO BE PERFECT! You can choose to respond to the question/writing prompt literally or you can respond through the voice of a character you are currently writing. The goal is 5 minutes of creativity.

Like last week, today, I’ve elected to write in scene from the manuscript I am currently working on, The Beast Within! I’m not sure if this scene will make it into the actual screenplay, but writing prompts are a fun way to learn more about your characters. 

Today’s writing prompt:

Have you ever seen something that you knew was wrong? Were you scared? What happened?

“Hey guys, I think I found something,” Sophie called. “It looks like the trail continues this way.”

About an hour later, tired and ready to turn back, Sophie heard something coming from just off the trail. “Did you hear that?” she asked, looking back at Kim and Dean who were already regretting their decision to come on this little adventure.

“I didn’t hear a thing,” Dean said, stomping past her.

“Shhh.” She grabbed his arm so he’d stop and listen. “Listen.”

It was faint, but the crackling of a fire and the sound of something being dragged across the dried leaves could be heard off to their left.

“This way,” Dean said as he left the trail and headed down the hill. Kim and Sophie followed close behind, but quickly stopped when Dean fell back, scrambling to get back to his feet. He tried to yell for them to run, but his voice was caught like a lump in his throat.

“What’s wrong?” Sophie asked, as she made her way past him to where the fire could be seen up ahead. Dean tried to grab her, tried to hold her back, but he was too late. Austin had already spotted them.

A young woman, with long blond hair stained red with blood, was laying on the ground in front of the fire. “What are you doing here?” Austin hissed, as he moved toward them.
Sophie was frozen, but Dean had grabbed Kim and was quickly pulling her back up the hill toward the trail.

“Dean,” Austin yelled, his voice echoing around them. “Stop,” he commanded. Without knowing why, Dean obeyed. It was over before Dean or Kim could even get a single scream out. Austin had rushed up the hill, circling around them, and swiftly lunged forward ripping their throats out with his teeth. He didn’t have time to savor the rush of blood as it flooded his mouth. He wasn’t feeding, he wasn’t even thinking. His beast was killing them in order to ensure his survival. He’d think about what he had done later, when the weight of it began to sink in.

Their bodies fell to the ground at his feet and he stared, in shock, as they bled out.

“A…Austin?” Sophie was watching, unable to look away. The blood had drained from her face and she was pale, with beads of sweat beginning to form at her hairline. She had begun to shake, uncontrollably, and her legs gave out beneath her as she fainted, slamming her head against a fallen stump before the world went black around her.

(c) 2019 Nina Soden

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Alright, now it’s your turn. I’d love to see what today’s writing prompt inspires in you. So, if you are willing, go to the comment section below and start typing. Take 5 minutes and let’s see what you come up with!

Have you ever seen something that you knew was wrong? Were you scared? What happened?

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20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill

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20th cen.TITLE: 20th Century Ghosts
AUTHOR: Joe Hill

RATING OVERVIEW
Writing: ★★★
Story: ★★★
Characters: ★★★
Appearance: ★★★
Overall: ★★★ (3)

AMAZON DESCRIPTION:
From the New York Times bestselling author of NOS4A2 and Horns comes this award-winning collection of short fiction.

Imogene is young, beautiful . . . and dead, waiting in the Rosebud Theater one afternoon in 1945. . . .

Francis was human once, but now he’s an eight-foot-tall locust, and everyone in Calliphora will tremble when they hear him sing. . . .

John is locked in a basement stained with the blood of half a dozen murdered children, and an antique telephone, long since disconnected, rings at night with calls from the dead. . . .

Nolan knows but can never tell what really happened in the summer of ’77, when his idiot savant younger brother built a vast cardboard fort with secret doors leading into other worlds. . . .

The past isn’t dead. It isn’t even past. . . .

Buy it HERE on Amazon!

THE CRITICAL POINTS
I’ll be honest, when I started reading this short story anthology, I had a hard time getting into it. Many of the stories were more science fiction or horror rather than what I typically consider a ghost story.

WRITING: Hill is a powerful writer, there is no denying it, with an active imagination. His visuals are often spot on in a very disturbing way.

STORY: This collection contained 15 short stories… I’m not going to lie, I didn’t enjoy them all. There was very little character development and the formatting from story to story was not consistent. So, I will take the time to focus on the few that I did enjoy.

20th Century Ghost
The Rosebud Theatre is an old-style movie palace, haunted by the semi-legendary spirit of a young woman. The girl died during a screening of The Wizard of Oz, appears infrequently throughout the Twentieth Century, and occasionally starts conversations with a select few moviegoers. The story is told by Alec Sheldon, the theatre owner, who worries about his approaching mortality and what will happen to the Rosebud after he retires.

  • My Thoughts: The ending was way to abrupt, and not at all where I felt the story was going or should have gone. However, I enjoyed the journey. I wanted more of the young girl, but was given less of the “ghost” and more of the old man running the theatre.

The Black Phone
Thirteen-year-old John Finney is kidnapped by a man named Al. Trapped in a basement room, the boy’s only hope may lie in a mysterious disconnected black phone hanging on the basement wall. The phone rings at night with the whispers of the kidnapper’s previous (and now dead) victims.

  • My Thoughts: As a mom, this story is my worst fear. The fear of one of my children being abducted is something I have had nightmares about since becoming pregnant with my first child. Hill captures the emotion of the experience perfectly, makes you feel, smell, even taste was is happening to the young boy. It killed me not to be able to reach into the book and protect him. I wont give away the ending, but it was one of the few stories where I felt somewhat satisfied as a reader… although, not completely.

Last Breath
The story concerns Dr. Allinger, an old man who runs a “Museum of Silence” which contains the last breaths of various people, some being famous figures such as Edgar Allan Poe.

  • My Thoughts: This is a simple story with a hint of a creepiness factor, but nothing solid to point to. The characters are simple, and relatable. It is one of the shorter stories in the collection, but it makes you wonder about life and death in a way that none of the other stories do.

CHARACTERS: Again, not a lot of character development. Although there were characters throughout the collection that I enjoyed and rooted for, there wasn’t one in every story. Hill’s writing didn’t make me love the characters. In fact, more often than not, I despised the characters or feared the fact that somewhere out in the world there were people really like them. With that said, I think Hill accomplished exactly what he was setting out to do.

APPEARANCE: The cover portrays bugs, which won’t make sense until you read You Will Hear the Locust Sing. I have to say; this story was one of my least favorites. Probably because it was, in a word, gross.

MY FAVORITE QUOTES:
“You get an astronaut’s life whether you want it or not. Leave it all behind for a world you know nothing about. That’s just the deal.” ~ Art in POP ART

“Wait. There are all different kinds of silence. The silence in a seashell. The silence after a gunshot. His last breath is still in there. Your ears need time to acclimate. In a while you’ll be able to make it out. His own particular final silence.” ~ Alinger in LAST BREATH

Check out my YouTube channel and the video review below… and make sure you hit subscribe so you never miss a video.

https://youtu.be/SaTYamD44dw