Sunday, March 31, 2013

Subspecies by Mike Arsuaga



With Samantha “Sam” Johnson, Dr. Jim White, a 130-year-old Vampire, has the best sex of his life and it’s a shame she had to be his next victim. But she had a surprise for him. As a Lycan, she hunted him as he hunted her. After discovering each other’s secret, they cannot resist the physical attraction. Together they hunt and reach out to others of their kind using technology to form a support group. Sam and Jim become the first Lycan/Vampire pair bond.

As a mathematics professor and man of science, Dr. Jim rejects the ways and lore of old in favor of modern solutions that, if not acceptable to humans, allow Lycans and Vampires, The Subspecies, to live invisibly, because discovery is their worst fear.

The Subspecies are a mutation within the human genome. No more than seven hundred have been alive at one time. They cannot breed with humans or within their own group, but when the Sam and Jim get in a family way, a universe of possibilities opens for not only them, but all of The Subspecies with the promise of their lives being more than hunting, living in shadows, and fruitless mating.


As I read Subspecies, I thought about how the old lore surrounding vampires and werewolves seems to have disappeared.  Everyone is writing his or her own mythology surrounding the “Critters of the Night,” which is what Sam and Jim call the support group they start where they conduct Twelve-Step style meetings for vampires and lycans.  That said, I like Sam and Jim even though they prey on humans.  They try to limit their prey to people who won’t be missed and without whom the rest of us can sleep more safely in our beds, and they try to kill humanely most of the time, sedating their prey first—Sam (the lycan) with an herbal tea, and Jim (the vampire) with a drug his body manufactures.

The characters were really well-drawn and engaging, and the plot drew me in and moved along.  Mr. Arsu

aga’s world-building was first-class, with the subspecies being born, developing more slowly than their human counterparts until “emergence” when they catch up and surpass humans overnight, except in the area of fertility.  While long-lived, they are not immortal.

The book was a bit high on the sex and body count for my taste, but I tend to be prudish that way.  I rarely buy from the hot side of any publisher.  Still it was a good book.  I recommend it.

Length:  201
Price:  $5.95


You’ll notice I always include the publisher’s buy link.  That’s because authors usually receive 40% of the book price from the publisher.  Editors and cover artists usually receive about 5%.  When you buy a book from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or another third-party vendor, they take a hefty cut and the author, editors and cover artists receive their cuts from what is left.  So, if a book costs $5.99 at E-Book Publisher.com and you buy from there, the author will receive about $2.40.  If you buy the book at Amazon, the author will receive about $0.83.

Downloading the file from your computer to your Kindle is as easy as transferring any file from your computer to a USB flash drive.  Plug the USB end of your chord into a USB port on your computer and simply move the file from your “Downloads” box to your Kindle/Documents/Books directory.  I actually download my books using “Save As” to a “Books” file I created on my computer that’s sorted by my publisher, friends, and books “to review,” and then transfer them to my Kindle from there.  That way, if there’s a glitch with my Kindle, the books are on my computer.  Your author will be happy you did when he/she sees his/her royalty statement.

Thanks for visiting.  RIW

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Hanky Panky (A Liberty Heights Novel) by Elle Druskin




Kaboom! A gas leak destroys Dana Fremder’s apartment and business in Brooklyn. With nowhere to go, Dana runs straight to best friend Hayley in Liberty Heights where a gunman is running loose. Or so Dana thinks. Voice over actor Hank Axelrod is loaded with sound effects that pop, whine, and screech, irritating Dana’s overstretched nerves. Too bad for Hank and Dana, that Hank’s Grandma Baumgart takes a joyride on a skateboard. Grandma has a concussion and an unshakable conviction that Hank and Dana are married. Nobody wants to upset Grandma. What can Hank and Dana do?


If you follow this blog and have taken my suggestion and read the first two Liberty Heights novels, you’re probably already in love with this crazy town and you’ll gobble up Hanky Panky hooting at the antics of the denizens of Liberty Heights, New Jersey the way I did.  You’ll hold your breath while the men of the town search through a blizzard for the most reluctant groom ever; laugh at the Sadie Hawkins Day steeple chase (so the single ladies can catch husbands, of course); and shed a tear for Phoebe Wilson.  She's turning five, and she lost her daddy in Iraq.  And only Liberty Heights would hold a Groundhog Day celebration using a meerkat to predict six more weeks of winter.  Of course, there’s Grandma Baumgart and her insistence that Dana and Hank are married.  Aside from that and a persistent headache that doesn’t seem to stop her from doing anything else, she seems to have recovered quite nicely from her concussion.  She even wants to ride on the scooter Phoebe Wilson got for her birthday, not that Hank or Dana want to let her—goodness only knows what delusion she’d come up with if she bumped her head again.

It’s Christmas Day as I write this and I told myself I wasn’t going to work today.  But I’m still chuckling as I write review and I had to get it down.  Ms. Druskin has pulled off something few writers can manage.  As this series goes on, it gets funnier.  I wish it was a television series so I could spend every week in Liberty Heights.  It’s such a great place to get away to.  Much as I love Chicago, it almost makes me wish I was a Jersey Girl.  And I’ve never heard of anything good coming out of Jersey before.  Ms. Druskin, you’ve rescued the reputation of a whole state.

Length:  193 Pages
Price:  $5.50

You’ll notice I always include the publisher’s buy link.  That’s because authors usually receive 40% of the book price from the publisher.  Editors and cover artists usually receive about 5%.  When you buy a book from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or another third-party vendor, they take a hefty cut and the author, editors and cover artists receive their cuts from what is left.  So, if a book costs $5.99 at E-Book Publisher.com and you buy from there, the author will receive about $2.40.  If you buy the book at Amazon, the author will receive about $0.83.

Downloading the file from your computer to your Kindle is as easy as transferring any file from your computer to a USB flash drive.  Plug the USB end of your chord into a USB port on your computer and simply move the file from your “Downloads” box to your Kindle/Documents/Books directory.  I actually download my books using “Save As” to a “Books” file I created on my computer that’s sorted by my publisher, friends, and books “to review,” and then transfer them to my Kindle from there.  That way, if there’s a glitch with my Kindle, the books are on my computer.  Your author will be happy you did when he/she sees his/her royalty statement.

Thanks for visiting.  RIW

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Retribution by Andy Harp




In the pitch-black cargo hole of the Pakistani airline freighter crossing the Atlantic, a wooden crate filled with levers for a weaving machine also has another object buried inside. If it makes it to its delivery point, an American city will become uninhabitable for a century.

In this chilling thriller, Retribution is more than the story of a deep-cover mission to stop a terrorist with a core stolen from an Islamabad nuclear weapon. Here, the operative does much more to flush out the target than a hunt and chase. He becomes a carrier of a highly contagious strain of a deadly disease.

In this oh so authentic story, author Andy Harp draws upon his experiences as a Marine who has served across the globe to create a uniquely real novel filled with breakneck thrills and plot twists. With action that flies from New York to London, from Peshawar deep into the mountains of the Hindu Kush, and from Islamabad to Chicago, Retribution weaves political conspiracy and a perilous, intelligence operation, hi-tech military technology and deadly current events, all with the crucible of a determined Jason Bourne like character in conflict with just as determined a killer, into a classic “mission” thriller that delivers the kind of nail-biting suspense, realism and a kicker surprise at the end that is in the style of Ludlum, and the best of Thor and Flynn. The story is engrossing, the hero is remarkable, and the personal cost he pays for both his survival and success changes the man.


The book starts out with a bang (literally—an embassy bombing), and sets up a motive for one of the players, along with the plot that containing the attack on the USA.  And, as if stopping an Islamic group that wants to make Al Qaida look like wimps, there’s an American terrorist group targeting Muslims around the globe.

At the beginning of this book, I found it a bit difficult to keep track of who the players were.  The hero shows up in the second chapter with no explanation of who he is or what his role will be. Once I got past the beginning and figured out who was whom, and who did what, it was a good read with a great race against the clock at the end.

Finally, I found some redundancies in the writing.  There were sentences like, “He took his coat off and brushed the snow off his coat.”  I suppose it’s the editor in me, but things like that niggle at me and detract from my enjoyment of books.  Despite its glitches, however, I do recommend this book.

Length:  546 Pages
Prices: 
Kindle:  $4.99
Paperback:  $13.99

Thanks for visiting.  RIW

Sunday, March 10, 2013

The Roswell Conspiracy by Boyd Morrison




After the 1908 Tunguska blast levels a Siberian forest the size of London, a Russian scientist makes an amazing discovery amongst the debris. In 1947, ten-year-old Fay Allen of Roswell, New Mexico, witnesses the fiery crash of an extraordinary craft unlike anything she's ever seen. More than sixty years later, former Army combat engineer Tyler Locke rescues Fay from gunmen who are after a piece of wreckage she claims is from the Roswell incident. Incredulous of her tale, Tyler believes the attack on Fay is nothing more than a burglary gone wrong. But when he finds himself locked in the back of a truck carrying a hundred tons of explosives and heading for a top secret American base, Tyler knows that he has stumbled onto the opening gambit of something more sinister than he ever imagined. Because disgraced Russian spy Vladimir Colchev is after an Air Force prototype code-named Killswitch, an electromagnetic pulse weapon of unprecedented power. Although Tyler is able to avert catastrophe at the US facility, Colchev gets away with the bomb and plans to turn it on America itself. To complete his mission, he needs only one other key component, a mysterious object recovered from the Roswell crash. In a desperate race against time, Tyler must unmask a conspiracy a century in the making to rescue the United States from electronic Armageddon.



The Roswell Conspiracy sucked me in at the beginning and kept me on the edge of my seat throughout.  It’s a bit of Indiana Jones meets Tom Clancy.  Okay, that’s a bit of a mixed metaphor—or maybe not, considering the tone of the last Indiana Jones movie.  At any rate, as the blurb says—it’s full of spies, action, archaeology, and Roswell theories.  And it’s a good read, although I was disappointed at the end.  I felt there was a loose end left dangling.  Was there another mole in the OSI (The Air Force equivalent of the Navy’s NCIS)?  I missed the answer, and I had a theory about who it was.  If you read it and find the answer, please let me know and I’ll revise my review.  But for now, it bugs me to have been left with an unanswered question and an unproven theory.



Length:  352 Pages

Prices: 

Paperback:  $10.95

E-Book:  $4.99




Thanks for visiting.  RIW.