story

Capital Offence – Robert S. Scott

AngelaLeave a comment

Capital Offence Cover ImageHave you ever done something when you were young that you regret?

Well, of course you have; we all have.

Do you hate politics? Do you love politics? Are you sure the government of wherever you may live is out to get the “little man?”  Yeah; most of us are.

But what do you do when you are involved in something horrible as a young teenager, yet you become the Prime Minister of your country?

Yep. You hide it all. You build a new life; you ignore those who stood by you.

Flesh and blood? No Matter. You have to do what you have to do to protect yourself, your family, and your image.

But when you are the Prime Minister, and your brother is going to face the death penalty in 30 days; then what do you do?

This is a fast-paced, long read. But it is worth every second of it. The story moves quickly, and you will not want to put it down. This was another story where I kept telling myself, “just one more chapter”. That one more chapter usually became 3 more chapters.

For this story, I am standing by my “no-spoilers” clause. But this story definitely deserves your attention. You want to read it. And once you start, you will not want to put it down.

Trust me, I know. I wake up at 2 am like clockwork, and I was grabbing this story to continue reading.

You definitely want to get to know this author. You can do so here: https://robertsscott.wordpress.com/tag/political-thriller-capital-offence/

Bashed – Barbara Marquardt – I Managed Almost 4 Chapters…

Angela1 Comment

…and then I could not take another word of it. I wanted to like it, and I tried to like it. But I just could not read any more of it.

(ATTENTION! If anyone decides to get this book, for free I hope, and skim through it, I would love to hear what your take was on the story. If 5 people can tell me I was wrong, I will remove this review, and send an apology to the author. Any takers?)

First, the premise of the story. A teacher at a high school, seemingly for the town’s cast-off kids whose parents stopped caring, gets locked into a storage room over Christmas break by an 18 year old who she has continuously had issues with because she tried to make him learn, but had no choice other than to fail him.

I did not read too far beyond this point, at least not far enough to get to the chapter where she is rescued.  The story continues with a battle between her and this student, the usual he-said-she-said things.  Per the synopsis, the public and school officials are quick to blame her after her rescue, because he is the star football player. The synopsis continues that this event changed her life in many ways, but as I am not going to continue reading this story, I cannot tell you what those changes are.

Bashed Cover Image

I stopped reading the story when Jean, the main character, was locked in the storage room. The storage room with a window. With a plexi-glass window. Already with a hole in it and spider-webbed cracks. I went back and literally read everything over again, trying to see if it mentioned some reason, somewhere, as to why she would not have broken the window and got out. Was it too small? Too high up? Why would you be looking out a window, at your freedom, and not try to get out?

I skimmed further along, because I really had to know if this glaring issue got resolved. I got to about the half-way point in the story, and the author mentioned that the room was on the 3rd floor. Thanks for letting me know.

Another issue, right from the start, was the lack of a cell phone.

Why was her purse and all of her belongings in the storage room, yet she has no cell phone. No cell phone. This book was published in 2009, and it is not set in the 1960’s. Why would she not have a cell phone?

I know; because if she had a cell phone, the author could not have written this story. What the author should have done, is explain why there was no cell phone, instead of just ignoring that flashing-neon error like no one would ever think twice about someone not having a cell phone.

The writing was also not very good, as far as sentence structure and the use of the English language in general. So even if I could of ignored the 2 huge errors that were distracting me, I could not read through the choppy use of the English language. Am I being harsh? Possibly. I will blame it on 2 wonderful weeks of vacation, and my first Monday back to work. Yeah; that’s it.

This story had one review on Goodreads, at 4 stars. It had 2 excellent reviews on Amazon, both from school teachers.  The free ebook site I got it from had 5 reviews, all 5 stars. But no actual written review. Just stars. You can buy it on Amazon for $9.00, or get it free from here: http://www.free-ebooks.net/ebook/Bashed

I Wrote How Many Book Reviews?

Angela3 Comments

I thought I should do a final post for 2014 of how many books I actually read, how many of those resulted in book reviews I posted, and anything else I may have thrown in.

Frosted Leaves and books 10-19-2014 063

I could really tell from my blog activity what months were the most busy for me. Or should I say, what months I was working on the toughest MBA college classes.

I did a whole lot of nothing in the summer months when it came to posting book reviews. I was really busy from September to December, and although I have every good intention of reading at least 3 more books when I finish the one I am currently on, I thought this would be a good time to do this post.

As a side note, I am off work until January 5th, and am kid free until January 4th. Which means I have a whole lot of reading-in-bed-writing-reviews-playing-with-the-cat-nap-time planned 🙂

For the year as a whole, I posted to date, 67 book reviews.

Of those 67 reviews, 18 were of books I had previously read, so for 2014 I read 49 new books. Not too shabby for being a single Mom of a whole lot of girls, working 50+ hours a week, and going to college for my MBA. The 18 on books I previously read were a combination of Halloween features, Christmas features, and books that I had read in the past that had a great impact on me.

The Cricket on the Hearth

June was the only month I did not post any book reviews, and October was my busiest month, with 12 book reviews posted. I have to add that for December I am currently at 7, and do plan on at least 5 more before the New Year, but certainly do not expect it to exceed October.

Frosted Leaves and books 10-19-2014 060

Some notables for 2014 for me:

I made the very tough decision to begin working on my MBA. After working non-stop for 2 years straight to get my BBA, I did take the entire year of 2013 off, as I promised my girls, and did not start college again until January 4th, 2014.

Girls 10-12-2014 012

After many months of contemplating, searching, and debating, I became the very proud owner of Beeblebrox Bare Bottom Benjamin Blu, or Benny to me! He is a Hairless Sphynx cat and I am not ashamed to say that little ball of wrinkled-velvety-soft skin has changed my life! I like to tease my 4 girls about their “little brother’, but believe you me, that little guy has gotten me through a lot of weekends when I was wide awake all night long from being a 3rd shift worker and having the weekend off.

Benny Christmas Eve 12-24-2014 002

I made the decision to leave my Supervision position with my company and go back to a Materials Coordinator position that I had previously worked in for almost 5 years. I have worked for my company for over 18 years, and am so thankful to have such a wonderful employer.

I joined the Editorial Freelancers Association, and am currently working on getting myself set to begin editing and proofreading books for new and current authors. I have a love for books and the English language that I would probably have a very difficult time putting into words in order to get anyone to understand. (Now that is ironic, right?)

EFA_logofull_80T

I would personally like to thank each and every single one of you for liking, following, or just commenting on a random blog post. I could not begin to tell you the excitement I have when I see that someone liked a post I made, and even better yet, left a comment, or followed my blog!

I will be setting some goals for myself for 2015, and there will be more to come on that!

When Self-Publishing Fails

Angela11 Comments

What do you do? Did you self-publish, only to find that the platform you used has serious formatting issues?

I have not self-published, as I am keeping my stories locked up tight; for the time being. But I am aware of several self-publishing companies that cater to the writer who wants to be published, and this is the best route. I did not say easiest route, because it is not.

I know Lulu, Blurb, and Createspace are very popular. Wattpad has been getting a lot of attention lately. I know Amazon offers self-publishing, but I have been seeing a lot of fall-out from their pricing and restrictions. The latest is that Amazon is selling merchandise for $0.01 and the sellers cannot do anything about it.

I have read some terrific stories from self-publishers. But I do take offense when a self-publisher wants to blame their shoddy skill of the very difficult English language on their self publisher.

Keep in mind; no matter how chopped up the story was; when your emails are just as chopped up; I am not going to believe this is a server/platform issue.

I have read about 3 horrible stories (yes, horrible) that I could not even read again no matter what the payment was.

I guess what I am saying is this: I wish these self-publishing websites had a way to tell that a story is pure crap and just refuse to publish it. Is the all-mighty dollar worth so much that these companies will publish anything as long as they are getting some kind of profit?

Oh, how the writers of days-gone-by are turning in their graves.

So I guess I would personally like to apologize to Maya Angelou, Emily Dickinson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and F. Scott Fitzgerald, not to mention so many others.

A Beautiful Family – Marilyn Cohen de Villiers

Angela1 Comment

I found “A Beautiful Family” to be a great read for me. It was not only entertaining, it was also educational. The story takes place over decades, going back and forth through different time periods, with each main character having a few chapters where the story is told from their point of view, before moving on to the next character, and a few chapters with their point of view. This actually lent to the flow of the story, and did not confuse it or make it difficult to read, as you may think from reading my descriptions of how the story was composed.

A Beautiful Family Cover

This story takes you through the life of a young Jewish couple, Alan and Brenda Silverman; the husband being over-achieving in his business dealings, and far from adequate as a father and husband. Brenda and their three children are also part of the story, as well as friends who were very dear to Brenda. This story takes place in a couple different locations, the main one being South Africa. The Jewish beliefs, religion, and lifestyle is very much a part of this story, and I definitely learned some things about the Jewish religion that I was previously not familiar with.

The focus of this story is how this family evolves as they go from young lovers, to young married parents, to spouses who no longer get along. Although the fact that they are Jewish is a major part of the story, it is nothing that overwhelms the story or takes control of the plot of the book. If you are not familiar with a Jewish lifestyle, you can, and will, still very much enjoy this story.

This is a good sized read, but definitely worth it. As I try to not give away spoilers, I will just say that Alan Silverman has made quite a name for himself within the Jewish community; a community who believes that no one who is Jewish would commit crimes and sins against their fellow man. The façade of a life he had created slowly begins to crumble around him, and he keeps trying and trying to make it go away. A lengthy court hearing brings everything to light, and puts an end to one man’s control and abuse.

I apologize to anyone who is Jewish if I misspoke, misquote, or misused any Jewish terms in this review. Although I did learn a lot from this story, I am certainly no expert. I am of the Lutheran religion, that is what I know very thoroughly.

5.5 Hours Left To Enter to Win Two $25.00 Amazon Gift Cards!

AngelaLeave a comment

I will announce the winner tomorrow as well as contact via email! Click here and follow the instructions to get entered:

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/0dcc89d93/

Amazon $25.00 Gift Card

500 Followers! One Happy Girl Here!

Angela10 Comments

Thank you so very much to each and every one of you who have chosen to follow my blog! I could not explain the excitement I feel each time I see I have a new follower; the 500th one was as exciting as the very first one.

500 Hundred Followers

I try to write a blog that is interesting, fun, and informative. I love books; they are my passion, and the stories I have read have been so much a part of my past, present, and certainly my future; I could not imagine a day without my books.

My bedroom is dominated by bookshelves full of books; yet I still have books packed away, stacked on top of others, and never-even-read yet, because I have so many. I am grateful to have 4 daughters who love books as much as me, and I know that is because I read to them from day one, took them to the library every week, and set a good example.

So once again; Thank You so very much! It truly makes me happy to be able to share my joy of books with so many others!

The Serpent Bearer – Frank Say

Angela3 Comments

serpent_bearer_final_cover_1_jpg

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

Did Any Of Your Favorites Win A Goodreads Award?

Angela1 Comment

I know I am a few days late, but I have been incredibly busy and just now had a chance to go see who the winners were in the Goodreads Best Books of 2014 contest.

There were a total of 3,317,504 votes placed. 6 of the books I chose won. There were a couple categories I did not vote on because I had no interest in them and had not heard of or read any of the books.

How did your favorites fare? Do you know someone who was a winner this year? I know I have read some great stories this year by new authors who I have no doubt will one day have their books being voted on as well.

I do have more book reviews coming, as well as more author features. My 13 year-old homeschooler has fallen off the wagon on staying on task, so I have been getting up at 4am, going to work for 9 hours a day, and then coming straight home and spending 5 to 6 hours every night helping her get back on track. I could of sworn I successfully made it through the 8th grade, about 30 years ago; it sure feels like I am going through it all over again!