Category: Book Review

Book Review: Shifter Mate Magic

Erin Penn

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Shifter Mate Magic by Carol Van Natta

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Pregnant Jackie Breton just escaped from a corrupt feline pack intent on selling her half-shifter baby to the highest bidder. She’s smart, independent, and has a desperate plan to keep her baby safe: Get away from the pride as fast and far as possible.

Trevor Hammond, prehistoric bear shifter, has been rejected by everyone in his life for… being born, basically. Well, except for the beloved aunt who raised him. He’s built a career as an independent trucker, but life would be much better with someone he can hold in his arms and claim as his own.

When Jackie meets Trevor at a truck stop, his bear demands he help her. His aunt even calls with a dire warning: Get Jackie to the magical sanctuary town in Wyoming before she’s killed.

Jackie thinks he’s sexy as hell, but too good to be true. She doesn’t trust shifters. With the feline pride hot on her trail, however, Trevor and the quirky town of Kotoyeesinay might be her only chance for survival. Even Trevor’s indomitable bear may be no match for the dangerous enemy seeking retribution.

 

MY REVIEW

First in series, so the special marketing price to pick it up. Not that I need much incentive to get a Carol Van Natta book, having read her science fiction romance thriller/mystery/police procedurals. The woman can write, her characters are intelligent, and diversity among her character – even the romantic leads – is common.

This book delivers on everything I have come to expect based on the other series I read by her.

One down side, it is short and there is some jumps that are abrupt. Usually related to when the romantic couple needs to be apart – since the story is about their relationship, what they do individually when they are apart for a week isn’t addressed. A quick gloss of “she got to know the town” and “he missed her”.

But again, this is when the couple is apart – so I understand the choice to focus on the relationship when they are together. Still, I think the book would have been better showing their development separately as well as together. Living with a void can be equally telling as living with a person.

The paranormal romance with shifters and magic users, elves, sanctuary, monsters, and dragons comes with a rich world all set to be developed throughout the Ice Age Shifter series. Great fun by a very good writer.

Addition – Meant to talk about what a WONDERFUL Alpha Trevor is. Recently I’ve been getting tired with shifter stories because the Alphas so often run right over the females. The insta-love of “fated mates” means the guy can pretty much do whatever he likes and the woman will do doe-eyes. Not here. I mean Trevor could – they are fated mates. But he stops himself every time his protective instinct would have him tossing her behind him and growling at the world. He lets her face her battles, protecting her back. He stops his instincts from overriding her emotional needs. Yet you never doubt if she needed him, he would be there, because he is. But he is there for the slow parts as well as the danger – the cuddles alongside the fights. I might actually start reading shifter romances again, or at least Ms. Van Natta’s.

(E is for Elliott Kay) Book Review: Poor Man’s Fight (Series)

Erin Penn

Poor Man’s Fight: Poor Man’s Fight Book 1 by Elliott Kay
Rich Man’s War: Poor Man’s Fight Book 2 by Elliott Kay
Dead Man’s Debt : Poor Man’s Fight Book 3 by Elliott Kay

SERIES REVIEW

Wide-spread school debt permeates this science-fiction world, as it does, sadly, our own.

I love the basic conceit of school debt, since I personally own about a car payment a month myself for the next ten years (on top of a car payment, rent, and oh stuff like food). This is one of the what-if scenarios I’ve bounced around in my head, but Elliott Kay has taken it to the end, completely playing out the intellectual exercise. Thank you for that – I got the picture – making people pay for childhood bad. 

In the modern world, we  are asking our problem-solving & most creative children to mortgage their future with school debt. Should we have the weight of the debt drag down their hopes and dreams? Does it drive them to higher creativity (and our economy to greater growth) or leaves them locked in their parents homes, in dead-end jobs?

All the people in this imaginary world who do not come from money face either military (killing many of the most driven (the entrepreneurs)), crippling debt of additional schooling locking people into limited job choices (the intellectuals), or working with their parents (the loyal and constant). These choices limit growth of a nation or world, and cause a slow slide back because no one can get ahead. This universe has locked everything into status quo for 200 years because the corporations have rigged the game.

Someone is about to lift the shrouds of sails and show the rigging.

I wonder when that will happen in our world and what the solution here will be. In the meantime, watching this intellectual exercise masquerading as an AMAZING MILITARY SPACE OPERA, can provide possible clue of America’s immediate future.

So cool when something is thought-provoking and pleasure reading at the same time.

Side Note: The author has other works in different genres. Be careful you get the path you want. Kind of like Piers Anthony – people who are expecting Mr. Anthony style to be the same for fantasy and sci-fi are in for a rude awakening. Mr. Kay’s “Good Intentions” erotica-level fantasy is not like his military sci-fi.

 

Poor Man’s Fight: Poor Man’s Fight Book 1 by Elliott Kay

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Quick-witted Tanner Malone has bombed the Test, an all-important exam that establishes how much he owes for his corporate-funded education. With his future plans crushed under a mountain of debt, Tanner enlists in the navy of his home star system of Archangel. But he hasn’t factored in the bullying shipmates, the civil war brewing on the border, or the space pirates.

As Tanner begins basic training, the government ramps up its forces to confront the vicious raiders wreaking havoc throughout human space. Led by the complex and charismatic Captain Casey, the outlaws never let their egalitarian and democratic ideals get in the way of a little murder or mayhem.

Assigned to the front lines, Tanner learns there’s only one way to deal with his ruthless foes, cruel comrades, and the unforgiving void of space. He’ll have to get up close and personal.

MY REVIEW

Military Sci-Fi at its best – taken from the grunts standpoint. You know the person that makes all the officers look good on a military ship. Sure the lone-man save-things at the end kills the non-officer vibe, but by that time you are so rocking the space opera you don’t care.

(See additional comments about the political commentary above under the Series Review.)

Very nice military story and can’t wait to see more. If you like solid space opera, you got it here.

 

Rich Man’s War: Poor Man’s Fight Book 2 by Elliott Kay

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No one walks away from business with the three biggest corporations in the Union of Humanity. Cutthroat trade deals and bloody covert operations make that clear as the star system of Archangel tries to break free. Yet despite all their power, the Big Three are more vulnerable than anyone knows—leaving them desperate to make an example of Archangel.

Tanner Malone would gladly avoid such struggles. He’d rather run out the clock on his enlistment in the Archangel Navy. Instead, he’s been ordered back into the front lines of a cold war that quickly grows hot. He doesn’t know about his government’s shady deals, or about the old enemies lurking in the shadows. All he knows is that the sky is falling—and he’ll have to fight harder than ever if he doesn’t want to be crushed beneath it.

MY REVIEW

SHORT VERSION – Space Opera, escalating battles, prerequisite training sessions (which is also standard for real-world navy), mild love interests, likable & identifiable main character, and final HUGE big battle with multiple ships taking up at least a quarter of the book, making the book impossible to put down. A wide ride.

LONG VERSION

Second in the Poor Man’s Fight series and still pretty awesome. A lot more profanity on this one and some editing issues which hopefully will get ironed out as a publisher has picked up his series and is now republishing them. Even the profanity may get adjusted as it is being published under a New Adult imprint. Look to reviews after mid-2016 for more up-to-date details on if the editing is improved; I read this Sept 2015.

Again a rocking space opera, and Tanner Malone still is a grunt – a well-known person for the antics in the last book, but a naval grunt (I know, every military reader just winced – sorry, but I don’t know the term for the lowest-level, should-just-follow-orders guy of the naval variety). And he now needs to learn how to operate with a team behind him. Every now and again he flashes back to being all alone and the only one able to do anything to save a boatload of people. And his trainers and supervisors go “and you were thinking….”, at which point he blinks and realizes he actually has people beside him who expect him to follow a chain of command and he relaxes. Boy has some Post-Traumatic issues but thanks to modern pysch is functioning fairly well.

I really, really like the fact in this book everyone in the military – marine and navy – truly does need everyone else on the team; they are a FORCE, not just “an army of one”.

The layers of the world haven’t gotten more complicated than the last book and that disappoints a little. On the other hand, Tanner Malone’s home system found out about the rigging of the school debt education system, and Archangel is opting out. With the whole system disintegrating, people are freaked not knowing what the new world will look like. Will the debt remain, will the corporations survive, heck … will they live through the war?

The world-building done in the first book makes the fall-outs in the second book lovely from a sociological standpoint. And you are are not as into intellectual exercises about what happens if… as I am, this still is an awesome, kickin’ space opera about 19-20 year old man in the navy.

 

Dead Man’s Debt : Poor Man’s Fight Book 3 by Elliott Kay

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“WE REQUIRE A DIFFERENT BATTLEFIELD.”

Nobody expected the war to last three hours, let alone three years. The star system of Archangel holds the line against invading corporate fleets, but a quarter of its territory is already lost. The navy can’t hang on much longer. Faced with this grim truth, Archangel’s leaders shift their strategy to diplomacy and espionage. For both arenas, they call upon a reluctant weapon: a frontline grunt named Tanner Malone.

These days, Tanner doesn’t aspire to win the war. He merely wants to survive it. Now he’ll be thrust into the center of events once again, pulled back and forth from covert missions to the media spotlight. Yet with every battle, he gets closer to the old enemy hidden in the shadows, and the ugly truth about the war that could unravel everything Archangel might hope to win.

MY REVIEW

I’ve not had time to read this book yet, but I didn’t want to hold back from sharing this gem of a series anymore.

Book Review: The Last Volunteer

Erin Penn

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The Last Volunteer by Steven Wetherell

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The fate of the world lies with one man: Bip Plunkerton.

Talentless psyentist and frequent drinker at The Empty Goat, young Bip Plunkerton will follow in his father’s footsteps as a Volunteer…footsteps that have yet to return from the wilds of the wide world outside.

Traverse the harsh weather of the formidable Ice Plains, navigate the Boiling Sea, and suffer the ravaging heat of the Bone Desert. Bip’s impossible task, continually thwarted by the semi-corporeal Mr. Random, is to warn the rest of the world of the coming doom of the Massive Ball of Death hurtling through space.

Will the last volunteer be any more successful than the first? Will Bip save planet Bersch from a fate set into motion millennia before? Probably not, but we can likely drag these questions out for a couple more books, though.

 

MY REVIEW

Steve Wetherell presents an excellent yarn for the Comedic Science Fiction genre, a genre woefully underrepresented in the fictional field, except for a few standouts like Isaac Asimov’s short stories filled with puns and, the giant whale in the field, Douglas Adams Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

The story satires gaming (both computer games and roleplaying), politics, criminal activity, education, the job market, weather, travel, and anything else which strikes Wetherell’s fancy, while providing laugh-out-loud descriptions of people and places. Following our heroic hero Bip, and an anti-hero adventuring alien Hostility Advisor Haden, and a semi-sentient Massive Ball of Death, and the truly-sentient Answer to Everything, the Universal Theory, or just Ted to friends, and the rest of the erratic group of point-of-view characters, creates a kaleidoscope of improbabilities that become probable in their collective existence.

As an editing note: I am impressed with Wetherell’s ability to blend three (or more) different timelines into a coherent narrative, using each of the POV characters to reveal more of the world/universe, develop characters, and drive the plot forward. All the while being funny.

Book Review: Steeplejack

Erin Penn

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Steeplejack by A.J. Hartley

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Thoughtfully imaginative and action-packed, Steeplejack is New York Times bestselling A. J. Hartley’s YA debut set in a 19th-century South African fantasy world

Seventeen-year-old Anglet Sutonga lives and works as a steeplejack in Bar-Selehm, a sprawling city known for its great towers, spires, and smokestacks – and even greater social disparities across race and class.

Ang’s world is turned upside-down when her new apprentice Berrit is murdered the same night that the city’s landmark jewel is stolen. Her search for answers behind his death exposes unrest in the streets and powerful enemies. But she also finds help from unexpected friends: a kindhearted savannah herder, a politician’s haughty sister, and a savvy newspaper girl. As troubles mount in Bar-Selehm, Ang must discover the truth behind both murder and theft soon – or else watch the city descend into chaos.

 

MY REVIEW

The opening is a mesmerizing account of climbing a chimney to repair it, perfectly explaining the main character, the city, and the culture in a single moment. The moment when our main character realizes the Beacon is missing.

The story then unfolds in this alternate universe without magic or weird-science, from the era of steampunk without being steampunk. Part murder mystery, part political thriller. Our seventeen-year-old protagonist, whose skin color bars her entry to everything with power and money, discovers herself in the middle of power and money.

All she wants is justice for a boy no one cared about. A hidden murder of a throw-away child in a throw-away occupation; steeplejacks fall all the time. To solve his murder, Ang will have to climb high in the city’s political soot and ash, and risk falling even further. If she falls, she will be just another steeplejack crumpled by the city’s harsh cobblestones. 

But if she doesn’t fall, she just might ignite a war.

Book Review: Dying for a Living

Erin Penn

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Dying for a Living by Kory M. Shrum

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And you thought dying once would be hard…

On the morning before her 67th death, it is business as usual for agent Jesse Sullivan: meet with the mortician, counsel soon-to-be-dead clients, and have coffee while reading the latest regeneration theory. Jesse dies for a living, literally. Because of a neurological disorder, she is one of the rare people who can serve as a death surrogate, dying so others don’t have to.

Although each death replacement is different, the result is the same: a life is saved, and Jesse resurrects days later with sore muscles, new scars, and another hole in her memory. But when Jesse is murdered and becomes the sole suspect in a federal investigation, more than her freedom and sanity are at stake. She must catch the killer herself–or die trying.

Dying for a Living is the first book in Kory M. Shrum’s gripping contemporary fantasy series. If you like page-turning action, tough as nails heroines, and perfectly-paced suspense, then you’ll love this “hilarious” and “supernaturally fantastic” ride.

 

MY REVIEW

Great new power, dying. Imagine a day-job where you take on someone’s death – prevent them from going through the door into the great beyond. But you have to go through all their pain right beside them, and no guarantee that it will actually work, if medical doesn’t get there in time to patch them up – because pain and damage is still a thing. You are just buying them time to get better.

Time from your life. Taking a couple days to a couple weeks to get better.

Would you go into work each day?

How about if your job is hated because of what you are? People want to come to you to have them save their life, but may try to end you otherwise because what you do isn’t natural. They want to be alive, but don’t want the unnatural around. Like voodoo or immigrants.

Overall a great beginning for a series and an exciting premise.

My problems with the story – both of these are personal likes and do not affect the quality of the story at all: (1) I don’t like the main character. She is totally believable – a person who lives in the moment, running from commitment because she might die (again) tomorrow. Her personality is a complete match to who she is and what she does, but I don’t like her personally. (2) The story also has one of my least favorite tropes: destined-one – but again, that is on me, and it doesn’t really play a factor at all in this first book of the series.