Rodeo Daze by Elle Druskin

Blurb:

It’s the Liberty Heights Stampede! B-grade actress Paulette Stone finally lands a great movie role. The catch? Equestrian skills required. Clueless Paulette turns to Jim Kildare for help but Paulette is hopeless. The solution? Import former rodeo champion Grandma Dixie Sue Kildare so Jim can concentrate on trying to romance Renee Landis, winner of the world’s worst first date contests.

While Renee does her best to ignore her feelings for Jim, Dixie Sue runs riot in Liberty Heights with her riding school, backyard sales and matchmaking. Then there’s the ghost haunting LouAnn Freedbush’s house complicated by sister BettyAnn’s failure at witch college and root beer addiction. What does psychic Wayne predict? Who is the ghost haunting LouAnn’s basement? Can Jim lasso Renee and win her heart?

Review:

Look out Grandma Baumgart, Dixie Sue Kildare’s in town and The Kildare Gang’s ridin’, ropin’ and shootin’ up Liberty Heights!  Grandma Baumgart’s not the only one who knows how to pick a girl for her grandson.  Dr. James Kildare (yup, just like the TV show and that was thanks to Dixie Sue, too) has his heart set on Renee Landis.  Fortunately, Grandma Dixie Sue approves of his choice and sets out to help him catch her.  Poor Renee doesn’t stand a chance.  Good thing she feels the same way, despite her track record of horrible first dates and never any seconds.  But this is Liberty Heights, New Jersey where normal doesn’t exist, but hilarious does.

Why do Liberty Heights books go so fast?  Why can’t they take longer to read so I can stay there awhile longer?  Oh, I’m not asking Ms. Druskin to pad her books.  The story is what it is and padding doesn’t improve a book at all.  I just love Liberty Heights and its crazy denizens old and new, human and animal.  I loved watching Lou Ann Freedbush trying to help her sister, Betty Ann dry out from her root beer addiction, while coping with the ghost in the haunted house she bought.  I love Wayne the psychic beagle, Dizzy the practically comatose horse and even Phantom, the “killer” horse.  Oh, yeah—and there’s Betty Ann’s search for a familiar.  That’s one of the reasons she flunked out of witch school.  She couldn’t find a familiar, and that failure sapped her courage when finals time came.  She knew the material; she just couldn’t get it out of her head and onto the page, knowing that without a familiar she still wouldn’t be able to get her license and join RWA—Registered Witches of America even if she aced her final.

If you follow this blog and you haven’t fallen in love with Liberty Heights yet, you may want to start at the beginning with Animal Crackers.  If you’re a fan like me, maybe you’ve been waiting for Book Five.  You will laugh just as hard as you have been.  I promise.

Length:  215 Pages

Price:  $5.95

Buy Link:  https://museituppublishing.com/bookstore/index.php/museitup/romance/contemporary-romance/rodeo-daze-detail

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

ReGuarding Grace by Karen A. Leppert

Blurb:

When a new student arrives at Mansfield High School, Grace Evans feels an inexplicable kinship with the boy. Strange feelings are not new to Grace, who has experienced lapses in time accompanied by injuries that defy logical explanation. As much as she tries to ignore this latest mystery, Grace cannot deny her already-troubled life is getting darker and more dangerous and wonders if this new boy knows her secret.

Jack Elliott has always known what he is and believes his life is one of destiny and fate because of one person: Grace Evans, a young woman who has haunted him since the day she was born. Everything…his education, training, sacrifices…has led to this moment, but Jack‘s skills are about to be tested beyond his wildest imagination.

Review:

Jack Elliott is an Amalgamate.  He is a person who most psychologists would diagnose as having Dissociative Identity Disorder.  In his world, however, it is not a disorder; it is an asset.  It is not the result of extreme abuse or trauma.  His personality did not fracture to protect him.  He was born with his alternate personalities, or “alters”, and they are assets, not liabilities.  His job is to guide people through Integration, but again in his world that means something different from ours.  His job is not to help people subdue and absorb their alters.  His job is to guard people and keep them from getting injured during their black-outs and when the time is right, introduce them to their alters, stay conscious when their alters come out, learn to lead their alters, and work with them.  In his world, some alters have special abilities such as ESP, enhanced strength and speed, or higher intelligence.  And, in his world, guys work with guys and girls work with girls.  But he’s been connected to Grace Evans since the day she was born.  And he just has to be her Guardian—despite the rules.

Grace doesn’t know she’s an Amalgamate.  She just knows she wakes up in strange places, or finds herself in her room but with leaves and twigs in her hair and bruises she can’t account for.  Oddly, the new boy in school seems interested in her and he seems to turn up at the strangest times.  She could swear he’s sleeping in her room.  He has a unique scent and she smells it in her room when she wakes up, especially if she wakes up with twigs and leaves in her hair.  Susan Fairchild knows exactly who Jack is, what his mission is, and what’s going on when Grace blacks out.  And she doesn’t want him to succeed in integrating Grace.  She has her own Guardian—Phineas.  He’s the alter of Peter, a friend of Grace’s.  Of course Grace has no idea Peter is an Amalgamate.  Phineas has told Susan that the host does not have to lead the alters in a body.  He’s convinced her she can become strong enough to eventually subjugate Grace and take over as the leader of Grace and the rest of her alters.  Even Jack doesn’t know how much danger Grace is in.  Oh, and then there’s Clare.  She’s another one of Grace’s alters, and her talent could get them all killed.

Ms. Leppert has added a paranormal twist to an already fascinating psychological disorder that is so rare, not everyone in the psychiatric community believes in it even when they see it.  I have a good friend with whom I shared a psychologist at the VA in Chicago.  Our doc did not believe in DID even though my friend suffered from it.  “John” was a fifty-plus year-old man when “Joan” manifested herself.  She was in her early teens when she first showed up.  “Dr. F.” thought she was just an excuse for John to dress in drag.  I’m not sure whether it was John or his wife who convinced Dr. F. that Joan was real, but John does not remember what goes on when Joan controls their body.  The two of them have different food allergies.  One can cook but not bake; the other can bake but not cook.  They communicate via e-mail.  I spent the night with them, and stayed up late chatting with John’s wife. The next morning Joan woke up and wanted to know what John had for supper the night before.  She also started to tell me some news John had already imparted the night before.

Back to the book.  The characters are well-drawn, three/four/five… dimensional people you can root for.  There is action and emotion.  It’s a really good book.

Length:  413 Pages

Price:  $5.95

Buy Link:  https://museituppublishing.com/bookstore/index.php/new-releases/series/reguarding-grace-detail

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

Adams and Eve by Elle Druskin

Blurb:

Halloween is murder.

Everyone in Liberty Heights is invited to LouAnn’s party. Dress as an Adams. Nobody can figure out why LouAnn chose such a peculiar theme, and the town’s residents wrack their brains for costumes representing famous characters named Adams. That doesn’t include the gate crashers; sister BettyAnn, now a bonafide member of Registered Witches of America, and her new boyfriend who’s practicing to be a vampire. Then there’s the uninvited costumed guest who plans to use the party to murder LouAnn, but this is Liberty Heights, where the unexpected usually happens.

Who’s trying to kill LouAnn? Why? How do the folks in Liberty Heights prevent a murder? Celebrate Halloween—Liberty Heights style.

Review:

WARNINGS:

1. Choking Hazard: Do not eat or drink anything while reading Adams and Eve.
2. Laughing Hazard: Do not read Adams and Eve in public unless you want to explain while you’re rolling around on the floor laughing your derriere off.

I read Adams and Eve at the VA while I was there to do my volunteer work.  It was a slow day.  I sit at a desk in a large waiting room with very little to absorb sound, so my peals of laughter echoed down the waiting room and through the hall.  And there were a lot of peals of laughter.  Of course, this was my sixth trip to Liberty Heights, New Jersey and I love its denizens, both human and animal, so I laugh at inside jokes as well as the obvious ones—like Wayne’s ESP.  Wayne is a beagle.  Or LouAnn Friedbush’s spelling.  She means, “Come as an Addams.”  She dresses as Morticia, her boyfriend Howie Fleischowitz is Gomez, and Wayne is Cousin Itt for a few minutes at least.  He isn’t fond of his costume.

BettyAnn and her boyfriend show up unannounced without costumes, but they’re weird enough not to need them.  Simon P. Stein, the wanna-be vampire, more closely resembles Herman Munster—and doesn’t like the sight of blood.

So, LouAnn’s expecting a Pugsley and a Wednesday or two, maybe an attempt at a Lurch, a few Uncle Festers and possibly another Morticia.  What she gets are John and Abigail Adams, Don Adams as Maxwell Smart with his faithful Agent 99, and a plethora of rather obscure Adamses plus a gorilla who Wayne clearly doesn’t like.

Yuppers!  Halloween Liberty Heights style is both hilarious and memorable.  But you’ll have to buy the book to find out who the gorilla is.  I highly recommend it.  Just re-read the warnings at the top of my review.

Length:  97 Pages

Price:  $2.50

Buy Link:  https://museituppublishing.com/bookstore/index.php/coming-soon/adams-and-eve-a-liberty-heights-halloween-short-story-detail

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

Thy Kingdom Needs to Fall; Thy Kingdom Fall by Austin Dragon

Blurb:

It is the morning of September 11, 2125. The New York City police commissioner stands on the 170th floor of the Three Towers, clutching his chest in shock. The sky goes dark, filled with dozens of them—the opening attack of World War III. Not merely the planet’s third global war, but the first one of the Tek Age—a hell we have never seen before.

How did we ever get to this place?

In 2089, a former skin-runner-turned-star-reporter quietly investigates the Washington DC daylight murder of the most powerful political king-maker in the nation. It is just the tip of a wider conspiracy and the start of a chain of events leading to this world catastrophe.

The world is a very different place: Western Europe has fallen to the Islamic Caliphate, Israel is gone, Eastern Europe has merged with Russia and Beijing runs the anti-American Chinese-Indian Alliance. America is very different too. The US Constitution has been found unconstitutional and replaced, presidential term limits are gone, and the culture wars are over. The three-term American president is obsessed with keeping the nation safe at all costs—by ending religiosity. But the Resistance stands in his way.

Thy Kingdom Fall is Book One of the epic After Eden Series.

Review:

I realize I’ve said I would not review a book until I finished reading it, but I see no way this book can redeem itself in my eyes regardless how it ends.  The characters are well-fleshed out okay, and the plot could be engaging.  But Thy Kingdom Fall is full of political rants and repetition, as each event is told from the point of view of different characters.  This is a four-hundred-plus page book that could easily have been edited down to three-hundred pages or less.

The book is told in flashback, which would be okay if the author started at the beginning and told the story chronologically.  Instead, he hops back and forth between 2089 and 2076 in Part One.  He adds even earlier dates to Part Two.  A flashback is fine, but here the flashbacks have flashbacks, and the transitions are choppy. It’s dizzying.

The thing that really makes me want to throw my Kindle across the room, however, is Mr. Dragon’s vilifying a group of people who do not deserve it.  Do your homework, sir.  The villains in this book are the Pagans, whom Mr. Dragon paints as godless people trying to stamp out religion.  The Pagans are the ones in charge of the government who trash the Constitution, pass laws against owning the Bible, and declare religious language (even the word “amen”) to be “hate language.”

That is not what Pagans are about at all.  The word pagan is derived from the Latin word paganus, or country dweller.  Most people today who call themselves “Pagans” believe in some form of deity and follow one of the ancient polytheistic paradigms such as the Egyptian, Greco-Roman, Nordic, Celtic, or Native American/Shamanic gods and goddesses.  We honor the Earth, the sky, and all of nature’s works.  Most believe in reincarnation, coming back until you get it right and then dwelling in Summerland, or Nirvanna, or Valhalla, or whatever.  Pagans are also the most accepting people around.  We don’t proselytize; we respect other people’s beliefs.  When was the last time a Pagan knocked on your door and tried to convert you?

So, again, Mr. Dragon—do your homework before you vilify a group of people.  We Pagans are not the villains you seem to think we are.

Length:  436 Very Long Pages

Prices:

E-Book:  $2.99

Paperback:  $13.51

Hardcover:  $24.29

Buy Link:  http://www.amazon.com/Kingdom-Fall-After-Eden-Series/product-reviews/0988723506/ref=cm_cr_pr_hist_2?ie=UTF8&filterBy=addTwoStar&showViewpoints=0&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending

Thanks for visiting.  RIW