Wings of the Divided Review

This week I’ve been reading a book about angels - and no, not the bible and no not my own novel, Stars and Satellites *cough*...moving on. 

I have in fact been reading Wings of the Divided by CJ Sullivan. The story is set in the town of Edenton in the US - though most of the characters are from further afield. The plot centres around several characters whose separate lives become entwined when two angels, Gidyon and Noam, turn up on Earth. 

After fleeing from three fallen angels who are trying to kill them, the two take shelter in a church where they meet Max, a man who is praying for the safe return of his missing son, Harry. After being convinced that they really are winged wonders Max agrees to put them up while they try to work out why the three fallen angels chased them to Earth. 

The chapters in the story are told through alternating points, including the bad guys and some of the co-characters.

Now I’ll admit, when I first started reading this I thought the plot was going to centre on Gidyon and Noam trying to destroy cultists brainwashed by a false religion that the three fallen angels were sent to create - a plot point which is established very early on. 

Yet the story does not go down this route and the false religion issue becomes very much a subplot, which I liked. Instead the book focuses more on all the different characters coming to terms with their personal demons and trying to sort their lives out. It’s also refreshing to read a book of this genre which is not about the end of the world, as this has become a clique among many books and films about angels and demons. 

Although if you want to see supernatural beings beating the hell out of each other - you will not be disappointed. Let’s just say Noam kicks ass when fighting bad guys.

The characters, especially the likes of Noam and fallen angel Laphelle have a lot of depth to them, which makes them very likeable and you genuinely care about what happens to them.

But there was one character that did disappoint me a bit and that was Malynko. Considering he is meant to be the devil’s right hand man, he just did not strike me as being very evil. He just seemed a little too laid back to fit the bill and Laphelle -another fallen angel - proved to be much darker. 

But despite a slightly bland villain this book ticks all the right boxes. It has a gentle, if as times very dark storyline, memorable characters and very good scene setting and if you think you know how it’s going to end, you’ll be in for a surprise. 

There are some questions left unanswered in the story, but as this is the first in the series, I think that can be forgiven. 

Wings of the Divided: The Divided Book One gets 8/10. 

It is available here on Kindle. 

Blood Slave Review

For the last couple of weeks I have been reading Blood Slave by Travis Luedke, which is part of his larger The Night Life series. 

To be honest this book is going to be a little hard to review - not because it’s bad or anything, it’s just that there is a lot of sex and adult themes in it and I like to try and keep this blog family friendly. 

So I’ll start by saying this: this isn’t a children’s book or a novel for teenagers. I know vampire novels are all the rage with the teen demographic right now but this is absolutely nothing like Twilight. In fact, once you have read Blood Slave, you will definitely see the vampires in Twilight as a bunch of pansies. 

But I digress. Blood Slave is told in the first person narrative by our protagonist, Hope. Hope is an ‘escort’ for lack of a better word - and is trapped on the prostitution circuit. Her life changes over night though when she meets a woman called Lia, who she quickly learns is a vampire. Once Lia realises that she cannot brainwash Hope from remembering their evening together, she takes her home to her master, Enrique, where they try to figure out what to do with her. Hope is allowed to live but at the cost of being a blood slave, which basically means sleeping with vampires and never seeing anyone she used to know ever again to keep their existence secret. 

 

However, it is not all bad as Enrique treats Hope like a princess and over time she is accepted into his mini-vampire family. Yet as the story reaches its climax, Hope’s happy new life is shattered when her old one comes back to haunt her. 

If you liked Tru Blood, you’ll probably really like this. It is very dark, gritty and does not squirm away from adult themes and it is very gripping - you will not be able to put it down.

You know when you see a violent or bloody scene in a movie and you cover your eyes for a couple of seconds until it has past? I caught myself doing that with this book, then I realised that the lines were not going to go away until I read them. I’ve never done that before, so it shows you how violent and gritty this tale is. 

I can honestly say I’ll be reading the sequels and I suggest you do too. 

 

Blood Slave gets 9/10. 

It's available for Kindle here. 

Troll Short Story Review

This week I have being reading Troll, a short story by co-author penname Wodke Hawkinson. 

As the title suggests, the tale revolves around the appearance of one of these fantasy creatures in modern day America. 

One quiet night in a quiet town suddenly takes a fanciful air when the police department starts receiving calls of a troll sighting under a local bridge. Two officers are despatched to investigate and return with a short and seemingly mutated man. 

Darrin Croft is the hapless sheriff who is left spending the night trying to figure out who the strange little man is and if he is simply mad and deformed or is in fact a troll. 

Without spoiling it, the ending will certainly take you by surprise. 

Although it is short, the story does well to convey the reactions of the police characters when they first encounter the strange, diminutive man. The reactions and dialogue of the characters feels very realistic for people who are forced to face such an unusual happening of myth and magic in their modern day town. 

I give Troll 7/10. 

Troll is available for Kindle here.

My Book is now FREE on Kindle

My new novel, Stars and Satellites is now available free on Amazon Kindle. But do hurry, it is only for 24 hours!

I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it and please, if you do enjoy it, please, please, do leave me a review - it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you. :)

Stars and Satellites is available by clicking here.

Tarranau Book Review

If you like fantasy epics and tales of magic and characters with long, unpronounceable names, (sorry James) then this week’s review will be right up your street as we take a look at Tarranau by James Tallett.

Tarranau is the name of the protagonist from which the book gets its title. The novel, which is the first in a series, tells the tale of Tarranau the water mage. The eighteen-year-old can control the movement of water and bend it to his will, hence his title. His talent also means that he has spent the last several years training at his island’s academy for water mage students. 

However, weeks before he is due to graduate, Tarranau is seemingly framed for stealing a medallion from one of his teacher’s and decides to flee his home before standing trial for the crime. Tarranau’s journey and the course of the book, tells his adventures across the sea, where he receives training from another water mage, too far off lands, fights with bandits and his eventual arrival to the stone-walled mountain city of Tri-Hauwcerton.

 

During his travels Tarranau goes from being an inexperienced, fearful youngster, to a tough, fighter who has come to master his element. 

Tarranau is also probably the most unlucky fictional character that I have ever read about. If he’s not been captured, he’s escaped, then been captured again, had assassins coming after him and being threatened by thugs down dark alleys.

That’s not to say that Tarranau is at all a pushover, especially once he has mastered the trick of turning water into ice blades and skewering enemies at a hundred paces. His character is sarcastic, which makes him somewhat funny. He is also very likeable and it makes you want to keep reading to find out what happens to him next. 

The book itself is written mostly in first person perspective, which usually follows Tarranau but will flit to other characters he encounters, including his friend Sawwaed. This conveys the thoughts and motions of the characters very well but the narrative does sometimes move to third person, usually when describing new landscapes. 

Though I did feel that the description of some locations was a little lacking, it would have been good to have a little more deal to get a better feeling of the surroundings the characters were walking into.

However, the fight scenes in the book are epic. The feelings of characters, the atmosphere and the speed of fight are conveyed like they are happening in real time, which is to be applauded. 

Now I return to the long names of some characters. Fortunately it only ever seems to be some minor characters, namely spirit mages that have such names. They seem to be instantly forgettable, even if the character has just delivered a major plot development. 

Anyway, besides that minor gripe, Tarranau is a very good read and I strongly recommend it to fantasy fans who want to get their teeth sunk into a new epic. I hope the sequels to come are just as good.

I give it 7/10.

Tarranau is available on Kindle here. It is also available in paperback.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! Good luck with the dreams you are chasing! :)