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The Faust Syndrome – Jaysen True Blood

AngelaLeave a comment

The Faust Syndrome CoverJust in time for the upcoming All Hollow’s Eve, one more story to make your hair stand on end while you fight the overwhelming urge to turn on every light in your home. Yes, it’s that good. This was my first read of Jaysen True Blood’s work, and I could not have been more pleased!

We all have the basic understanding of right and wrong; correct? Good. And we all try to do good by our hearts, and what we know we should be doing.

But what if you had the ability to do whatever you wanted? Anything: right, wrong, or indifferent. Could you still do the morally correct things and follow the rules of society as society dictates? What if you could have it all? Or at least you believed you could have it all. Then what would you do?

This story looks at right and wrong, morally correct and unethical, righteously sound and corruptness by evil. Read about the lengths one man goes to in order to have it all. Ironically, he “had it all” throughout his entire childhood. Having it all would cost him his soul, but what did he need that for anyhow?

You will never look at Heaven and Hell the same, and may change your mind on what you believe to be true. There is no religious marketing scheme here to get you into a church; just the lengths a man goes to in order to have it all. He destroys anyone and everyone who gets in his way, and then he destroys some more just for the fun of it.

The ending had quite the twist for me, and it made the story that much more profound now that I knew the “whole” story. I try at all lengths to never give out spoilers, and the same holds true here. You are going to have to read it for yourself!

You still have time to get this book and have it read before Halloween this Friday, October 31st. Or at least start reading it by Halloween. You will want to make space on your scary-books-bookshelf for this one. I myself am making room for a couple more of Jaysen True Blood’s books on my bookshelves.

You can find this book here: http://www.amazon.com/Faust-Syndrome-Jaysen-True-Blood/dp/1502566079

Lost – Gregory Maguire

Angela2 Comments

Lost book coverGregory Maguire went out on a limb with this story, creating a completely original character for the focus of the story. It is centered around an American writer, Winifred Rudge, who makes her way to London to visit a distant cousin. After publishing a best-selling story, she is ready to begin her next novel; a story about a woman who is haunted by the spirit of Jack the Ripper.

Her cousin, John Comestor,  has disappeared in thin air, his apartment in the middle of being renovated. His girlfriend proves useless in the search for John, and the downstairs neighbor is not much more of a help. The apartment is haunted by someone who resembles Mr. Ebenezer Scrooge himself. There are many other quick appearances of characters of literary history.

There are also subplots going on that I did not find necessary to the story. Instead of adding to it, they seemed to make it more difficult to enjoy.

I liked this story well enough, but it was not one of my favorites by Mr. Maguire. I have read all of his stories but one, and I find that they tend to be hit-or-miss for me. This could have been well beyond “good”, but I guess it’s like they say, “You can’t win them all!”

The Jefferson Key – Steve Berry

Angela2 Comments

I found this to be a great book. It was better than I expected, and being a history buff, this is no-holds-barred! Mixing history with facts, this book held my attention from start to finish. The author did not overwhelm with useless information that added pages to the book, but no information.

Books and Covers 9-15-2014 004

Fighting the Government, Cotton Malone is focused not only on success, but on the woman who is holding his heart captive. There are twists and turns here, but not a whole lot I can say without giving you spoilers. The main concept of this story is that four Presidential assassinations that span a hundred years are related and happened for the same reason as the assassination attempt on the current President, Danny Daniels.

Is it possible that our founding fathers put into place a clause that allows for the sanctioned killing of a United States President? This is what Cotton needs to figure out, and it puts him on a trail that takes him from one side of the country to the other.

If you are a history buff, and love to read, you will want to make sure this book goes on your must-read list!

Books About Books!

Angela2 Comments

B&N Books Gift Card 10-23-2014 001Has anyone read Lorna Barrett’s books about Tricia Miles, owner of a mystery bookstore?

I am just asking, because I now own 7 of them, and have never read her books.

But, when I see a series of books, about a bookstore owner…Oh Boy! I believe that I do have all of the books she has in this series, and it appears to be the type of books I read, mystery and funny, all rolled up into one great story!

I received a gift card from my awesome team at work when I was leaving my position as their Supervisor to take a different position (everyone knows I am all about the books…) and while I was killing time before a weekly Doctor’s appointment, Barnes and Noble is where you will find me.

So I was just curious; have you read them? What did you think?

I have a stack of stories in front of me I am reading before I even think about starting on these, but my MBA class ends in 2 weeks (WooHoo) and then I am free and clear for the rest of the year!

Just a thumbs up or thumbs down if you please, I am not a fan of plot spoilers!

Are You A New Author? I Want To Read Your Story!

Angela34 Comments

*UPDATE* 11-30-2014*

*I want to thank everyone that was willing to allow me a peek at your in-process, about-to-be-published, and published stories for me to review and edit when requested. I am down to a minimum of stories to still get finished, and it will not be a long process from here on out. As of today, I will not be accepting any more stories for editing and reviewing through this blog. This is strictly due to the fact that I want to finish up the stories I have left to do, as well as begin reconstructing my blog, or likely setting up a website, where I can strictly offer these services. With Christmas 4 weeks away, I want to make sure I do not overwhelm myself as I prepare for a very busy 15 more days at my company before our year ends, as well as getting my home-schooler squared away and on task before the new year begins. Thank you again for all of the responses, I have gotten to read some absolutely fabulous stories, and made some friends along the way as well! I hope as I get closer to setting up a website that I can call on those of you whose stories I reviewed for honest feedback on my abilities to proofread/edit!*

I will in the very near future be offering my knowledge and skills for proofreading (usage and formatting), editing (line and copy), sentence and paragraph structure, plots (and those plot holes we all dislike so much), point of view, structure of the story, and other services the author deems necessary to publish the best, most polished book they can.

There are some things you may, or may not know, about editors. They love books. They really, truly love books. They also love authors. They love that you are making this sacrifice and commitment to get the written word out to the masses, and an editor wants to help you with that. An editor really can help you publish the book of your dreams; a book you are going to be proud to market, autograph, and host release parties for.

I have to date reviewed numerous books I have read by choice, and books I have been asked to review. I have met many great new authors who truly deserve to be famous in the world of books. In that aspect, I am not asking or expecting you to give me your book for free in exchange for an honest review. I go to the bookstore all the time and buy books by authors I have never heard of, because I like the summary of the story, and the cover caught my eye. With that being said, I also do not have the means currently to be spending hundreds of dollars on books in order to review them.

In return for my review, I would like an honest review on my proofreading and editing abilities. If you want someone to find any spelling or grammatical errors, I am that person. Are you not sure if you are writing in the proper point of view for the story? I can fix that. Plot holes? I can make them disappear.

So you would probably like to know what exactly makes me a qualified editor for your work that you have invested so much of your time and talents on, correct? Correct.

I love the English language. I love everything about our complicated, hardest-language-to-learn in the world. I love spelling complicated words, and how a sentence can be structured to be an amazing line of thought-provoking letters and punctuation. I am currently working on my MBA, and have portfolios of all papers written for my previous 2 college degrees. I have maintained a GPA of 3.83 to 4.0. That 3.83 was courtesy of Statistics classes. Yikes!

I read to learn, so I have vast fields of knowledge in various areas that may be of benefit to you. I love history and everything about it. From the Civil War to now, if it is out there and I found it, I read or watched it. Mythology and various religions have also been areas of study for various classes and research papers. I love to research information, and document it. Are you citing someone else’s information? I can make sure you are protected from any possible instances of plagiarism. If you need to add information but you are not 100% sure it is correct, I can find and fix it for you.

If you are interested in an honest review of your book, I would love to review it! I do not post a review that I was asked to provide without the author first seeing it. It is not my intention to harm anyone’s future as a famous writer. I will also provide the review to Goodreads, Amazon, Facebook, your blog, website, or publishers website. If you want it posted somewhere specific, you just need to let me know.

I can be contacted in the comment section to this blog, or reached at angi.gibbs@yahoo.com. This is my personal email address, and any instances of spam will be immediately deleted, and you will be blocked from any access to my emails or blog. Thank you for your understanding!

I look forward to great readings and reviews to come!

The Narnian : The Life and Imagination of C.S. Lewis – Alan Jacobs

Angela1 Comment

I am a huge fan of the Narnia books, and all books by Clive Staples Lewis. The Narnian is a great overview of C.S. Lewis and his life, and how that in turn brought us the wonderful world of Narnia, and the adventures of the Pevensies.

The Narnian Cover

You will learn about his youth in Ireland. The games he played with his brother Warnie, and how this was the beginning of what would become Narnia. Clive loved to create worlds with fantastic creatures and settings even from a very young age.

Taking part in World War I, being in the trenches fearing for his life would have even more profound effects on his beliefs, and his writing. C.S. Lewis was also friends with J.R.R. Tolkien, and they were members of a writing group known as “The Inklings.” Could you imagine sitting in a room with C.S. and J.R.R.? Oh my goodness, I do not know if I would be speechless, or unable to shut up with never-ending questions I would love to ask both of these great writers!

courtesy of Google+
courtesy of Google+

This is a thorough, extensive biography of the life of C.S. Lewis, and even if you have extensive knowledge of him already, you are bound to learn some new things in this book as well. A wonderful read for fans of C.S., his stories, or great writers in general. This is a book I will read again!

Ravaging Myths – Frederick Marshall Brown

AngelaLeave a comment

Okay, it has been a while since I have had to do this, but here goes. Do not read this book. I searched as much information as I could about it, and all of the reviews I found were pretty close to how I felt about the story.

If someone tries to hand this book off to you, do not take it!
If someone tries to hand this book off to you, do not take it!

I wish I had something nice to say about this book. I was looking for another great scary read for the Halloween holiday, but this was not it. Unless if spelling errors, bad grammar usage, poor paragraph and sentence structure, and more holes in the plot than you would find on a colander are your thing.

If so, then this is the book for you!

The first couple chapters definitely got my attention, but as each new character was added in, something else decreased in quality. Nothing made sense. Nothing added up. The story would completely change direction and characters in the middle of a paragraph. With no explanation. Meaning, you are reading about Dick and Jane running up the hill, and the very next sentence tells you Sam and Spot went to the park to chase Frisbees. And whatever Dick and Jane were doing just stopped. Trust me; it is much worse than I can even make it sound.

This story takes place in Hawthorne, supposedly a Native territory, but even that does not make sense. It mentions St. Louis, Sioux Nation. Did St. Louis previously belong to the Sioux? Or is the author just making things up? The storyline was everywhere but on track, and it basically ended up being that a funeral home was built on top of a cave that was a bridge to the spirit world. Yes, there is your spoiler alert. Because I hope to goodness you are going to trust me and not read this book. The author mentioned at the end of the story that since he lives in Las Vegas with his wife and son, he was thinking about a ravaging myths story based there. This, my friends, was the scariest thing about this story. That he may possibly write another.

I can’t even say it has a nice cover 😦

Bugger…