mystery

The Serpent Bearer – Frank Say

Angela3 Comments

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This was a great story, full of great characters, great scenery, and best of all, a great plot! Taking place in Louisiana, Sydney Monroe has her life turned upside down when her Grandma, or Memaw as she is affectionately called, asked her one more time to use her psychic dreams to help out friends of the family.

While Sydney drags her sister Casey into the mess right along with her, they soon find themselves on a journey of discoveries about themselves, their families, and the difficulties they experienced as children.

Dave, the neighbor, adds a perfect amount of entertainment to the story, like a welcome guest and not an intrusion. There is a varied cast of characters, but none are so complicated that you have a difficult time keeping track of the who-is-who of the story. (That is my first pet peeve about books; too many characters.) Not so here!

This story gives some brief background on various religions in relation with the point of the story, and it provides interesting information without boring the reader. This is not a book chock-full of religion or religious innuendos, but it does discuss psychics abilities, voodoo, and various things of what some would consider ‘black magic’ types of things. It adds to the story in just the right amount.

I really enjoyed reading this story; it flowed very well from one character to the next, and also from one chapter to the next. You do not always see books that use a transition sentence at the end of one chapter to pull you into the next chapter; this one did that effectively!

Frank Say Picture

Be sure to stop by Frank Say’s website to see what else he has for your bookshelf! You can find it here: http://www.franksay.com/

You can find the CNN review here: http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-1179031

The Mystery of Orcival – Emile Gaboriau

Angela2 Comments

What a great book, by an author I have never heard of. Emile Gaboriau lived and died in the 19th century, and writes in the style that you would liken to Arthur Conan Doyle’s beloved Sherlock Holmes.

Orcival Cover Image

Monsieur Lecoq is a detective of rare form, the kind whom not the tiniest fact can slip past. He lives in France, and the crime thtat took place at Orcival is complicated, full of twists and turns, and certainly a great read, if you are into those kinds of stories.

I would not say it was an easy read by any means, but I did enjoy the story, and am glad that I read it. Detective Lecoq does much more than assist the local police as they try to figure out a baffling crime of murder, mystery, and deceit. They know that one murder has taken place. But there may be as many as three, since key players are missing, presumed dead, and Detective Lecoq is not buying it.

This is a story where you will need to adjust your “reading” for the nuances of stories written in the 19th century, where instead of “Monsieur”, you will see M. I have another of Emile Gaboriau’s Lecoq stories to read, but that will not be happening anytime before Christmas.

Do you enjoy these types of stories, written “way-back-when”?

The Wychetts – William Holley

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This was a great, quick read full of laughs and not complicated in the least. This is definitely a YA series (this is book 1) or at least 4 or 5 that are published, with the promise of more titles to come.

The Wychetts Book 1 Cover

The story focuses on Bryony, a presumed teenage girl and her father, Bill. Bill is newly married to Jane, who brings along with her a 10 year old son, Edwin. Bill takes it upon himself to purchase a new family home for all of them, sight unseen. I chose to ignore the fact that no one in their right mind, or any mind, would ever do this. He did not even get the seller’s name or any information. Okay, so we are just going to move along and ignore the clearly impossible things happening here, and enjoy the story for the fun read it is meant to be. This house, called Wychetts (pronounced Witchitts), was created 500 years ago to ensnare the magic from the Guardians, to be used by the Dark One.

Bryony and Edwin are of course 2 Guardians, and Bill buying the house was not by accident. It was all planned in order to take the magic from the guardians and use it for evil.

There is nothing too scary here, and I would definitely let my 10 year old read it. Other than some talk of overgrown spiders, I did not see anything that would be of concern to young readers or their parents. I read it easily in a few hours, and will definitely read the other ones published to date. If you have young readers in your home, these books would be great gifts!

Visit there website for more information here: http://www.wychetts.com/Wychetts/Wychetts.html

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If you missed my Thursday post and the chance for the free Amazon gift cards, be sure to go check it out and register to get your name in the drawing. There’s a couple few days left and I would love a great turn-out for this give-away before my next one 🙂 You can find it here: https://booksandopinions.com/2014/11/06/give-away-1-for-your-holiday-season/

Goodreads Choice Awards 2014

Angela6 Comments

I received my annual email recently that Goodreads was opening up their voting for the 2014 Goodreads Choice Awards. I like to go through all of the books and see if there are ones I have read, any of my new favorite authors, or something that catches my eye that I may want to read.

Goodreads Choice 2014 Logo

So I was curious as to how many of you do the same thing. Do you actively use Goodreads? I have been much better about logging in on a regular basis, and need to get to the point that I am checking in every day; which as of late, I have been.

The voting tends to be a long, tedious process, at least with my internet connection. Lately everything is long and tedious and I do not know if it is the 2 laptops we use in my house or the internet service. When I am trying to do my MBA homework, help my daughter with her homeschooling, write book reviews, update my blogs, check email…you get the picture…I have been wanting to chuck my laptop right in the garbage.

Sorry; I got off track.

So the voting has everything in their own categories, so it does keep it nice and organized. You also have the option of writing in a book, and I honestly have a couple books in mind that I may do this for, because I read them this year and they were fantastic, and deserve to be in this competition.

Do you vote? Have you written in a book you loved and wanted it recognized? Have you ever known one of the authors on the list? Have you been on the list?

What do you do for the categories that you do not read, such as if you do not read science fiction, or romance? Do you just pick one that you like the looks of the cover or the title? Do you think that is fair to the authors? (I am just curious, I have no hard-and-fast rules or feelings about this platform of voting for books).

I think Goodreads is a great resource for readers and writers alike, and will likely be adding some books I come across to my bookshelf.

The Faust Syndrome – Jaysen True Blood

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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.

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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!

Cradle and All – James Patterson

AngelaLeave a comment

As the owner of too many James Patterson books to count; Okay, you can never have too many James Patterson books!, I figured I was due to review another one. I read this story quite some time ago, and it was a great read!

Cradle and All cover

Anne Fitzgerald is a former nun, and current private investigator. Still having a friendship with the Cardinal of the Archdiocese of Boston, it was him who brought Anne the strangest case yet to date. She travels to Los Angeles and witnesses the horrible effects of the outbreak of polio. Yes, polio. It has just found its way to Boston, so Boston is not yet as ravaged with the disease as Los Angeles is.

What comes next is as unbelievable to the religious PI as it would likely be for most; a pregnant virgin. Not just one, but two. One in Ireland, one in Boston.  And even more epidemics. Seemingly straight from the Bible. The world begins to wonder if this truly is the “second coming” that many have predicted, prophesied, and been waiting for. Anne realizes the danger that these two girls are in with their virgin pregnancies and upcoming births. These two girls are scared. Anne is scared. The whole world is scared.

With this story, Mr. Patterson builds on both our inborn fears and our inborn hopes at the same time. It seems now more than ever that everything, everywhere, is going from bad to worse to unspeakable. This is a great story to make you think, with lots of twists you won’t expect, and it is not full of religious overtones (really, it is not) in case if that isn’t your thing. You should definitely give this one a try!