One Day In Budapest by J.F. Penn

After an ancient relic is stolen, Budapest in thrown into a frenzy.

It is up to Dr. Morgan Sierra and her pal Zoltan to uncover who is behind the theft and who is framing the Jewish citizens for the terrible crimes of setting bombs off all over the city.

Jewish symbols start appearing all around the town, it becomes more apparent that they are being framed, and that something serious is about to happen. Bombs are going off in the city, and no one knows how to stop it.

I felt like I was on a journey through Budapest while reading this; Traveling through the city and the underground labyrinth while learning more about the history as I went along. It was a fun reading experience and I recommend it for readers who enjoy history, travel, religion, and even politics. It has a little bit of all of those things for readers to enjoy.

It is a novella, so it is pretty short, but I didn’t feel as though anything was lacking.

The characters were well written. There wasn’t much time for elaborate character arcs, but none of them were boring or useless. They all had a place in the story and were written to match their role very well.

Not to mention the major cliff hanger at the end.

4/5 stars. Some of the scene cuts were confusing when starting a new chapter. But once you figure it out, it is fun to read, and it will take you on a journey. 

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Red Love by Rayme Michaels

Have you ever been so sick of humankind? Have you ever wanted to rule the world?

That is what Paul and Damineh want. They want to take over the world and make everyone just like them. Vampires!

Paul and Damineh have been lovers for hundreds of years, but now Paul decides he is sick of humans and wishes to take over the world.

Little do they know, there is someone higher up than they are that has more control. They must try to take that away from him in order to complete their mission.

The vampires lovers must gain their own army in order to take over. After they initiate a mass converting session, they have their army in place and must set their plan in motion.

With a certain element of fate on their side, their chance of success is higher.

This was an interesting novella. I feel as though it could have been a little shorter, as there were parts that I felt were not necessary to the story. It was a little slow at times, but picked up when the action began.

The characters didn’t feel like they evolved over the course of the story. There wasn’t much of an arc for any one character.

2/5 stars

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Gumshoe Santa by David Henderson

Gumshoe Santa is a bonus short story for the collection Broken Christmas. And because you are reading this, you have a chance to read it!

At the end of Broken Christmas, there is a Secret Santa Cyphered message. By emailing that message to Mr. Henderson at info@phcbooks.com, you will receive a copy of Gumshoe Santa for yourself!

Purchase Broken Christmas Here

Gumshoe Santa

There are some kind people left in this world. Oscar personifies that.

Oscar is a private investigator hired by Andrea Fox to provide photographic evidence that her husband is not being loyal to their marriage. Due to a pre-marriage agreement, her husband having an affair is the only way she will make out with part of his fortune in the event of a divorce.

There is only one problem – Mr. Fox was as faithful as they come.

Oscar could not obtain photographic evidence, so he was paid a lot of money to frame Mr. Fox. Instead, he discovered another secret about the couple that will end up coming out instead.

He does not want to ruin a whole family on Christmas Eve. So, because he looks like Santa Claus, he brings their child a toy that has been sold out in al stores in order to keep the Christmas spirit alive.

It is a sweet little story. I wasn’t sure where it was going or how it was going to end up, but once I got to the end, I was very satisfied with how it turned out.

Read Broken Christmas and find the secret code to get this story, you will not regret it.

4/5 Stars. 

Incorrigibility by Rayme Michaels

I am going to call this Bro-Fiction. If that is not a genre, it is now.

I am going to call it that because it seems like a story a guy might share with his friends. It is pretty sexually explicit and full of dirty humor.

The definition of incorrigible and the top two definitions that match this book are:

Incapable or being corrected or reformed

and

Difficult or impossible to control or manage

Why does that match this book? The three main characters in this book do not change their point of view no matter what life throws their way – good or bad.

I feel as though the characters all represented three different sides to one man in a way. They were all completely different, but I feel that if you put them together, they would make up one complete man with their thoughts.

That being said, and even though it is a short story, I don’t feel as though there was any real character development.

It was interesting to read, but I couldn’t really get into it, and felt myself cringing from time to time from the content.

2/5 stars.

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So Say the Waiters Book 1 (episodes 1-5) by Justin Sirois

This is Book 1 in an exciting new series called So Say the Waiters. 

Justin Sirois digs into the growing market of social media and mobile apps to bring an interesting new series to readers.

The story mainly takes place in Baltimore and follows two main characters Dani and Henry. Their story lines are separate, but as I had been assuming since beginning the book, they end up crossing paths along the way.

Henry is a program developer that has recently gone through a divorce, and he is just trying to get through. His job is enough for him, but the payments on his house and mortgage are getting out of hand. As he tries to get over his recent divorce, he begins calling in to work more often than not. When his good friend from college calls him up and flies him out to California for a weekend, he is given an offer that he cannot refuse – no matter how much he may want to.

Dani is a single girl covered in tattoos and works as a bar tender at a local club. She is good at her job, but struggles to make rent. She lives with her friend Bonnie, and though they don’t get along all of the time, the arrangement is good enough for them – at the beginning. She is covered in tattoos, none of which have a great amount of meaning to her, don’t ask her what they mean, and ESPECIALLY don’t call her a hipster.

To me, Dani was the more interesting character of the two. For a good majority of the book, Henry was a bit whiny, but that is his character. He has gone through a rough patch in life, but is working on turning it around.

About midway through we are introduced to two other character, Jess and Uly. They are brother and sister and Jess is about four years older. They are interesting characters, but for the longest time, I could not figure out what part they had to play in the story. It becomes a bit clearer as the story progresses, but I hope to see a bit more of them in Book 2.

Now to what ties all of these characters together and what this book is really about. kidnApp. It is a new mobile app that was created by Henry’s college friend Steven. This app allows the “waiters” to submit an application to be kidnapped by hired “takers”. The takers are hired by the company and are professionals who are there to fulfill all of the waiters wishes for their kidnapping experience. Once the kidnap is done, the takers return the waiters to their homes. In the app itself, it allows waiters to write about their experiences and to connect with other waiters.

It is a very interesting concept, but it could go horribly wrong.

This book is written very well. Justin Sirois writes in a way that captures your attention from the very first page. The chapters are fairly short, and there are also breaks in each chapter if you need to put the book down to take a break.

The characters all have their own stories, and they all grow as the story progresses. None of them felt like unnecessary characters. They were all important to the book, and they were all relatable in their own ways.

I can’t wait to read the rest of this series.

5/5 stars. Perfect set up for a series. Interesting storyline with great characters and character development. 

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Alice in Wonderland by Nancy Christie

Books can take us to a whole new place. A world beyond our most wild imaginations. They provide a place to escape from reality.

That is what Alice relies on in this short story.

Alice has obligations at home that she does not want to deal with. She uses her books to escape from her reality and transport her into a whole new place.

I feel like Nancy Christie puts the reader inside the mind of Alice and you experience the insanity she is feeling.

It has a dark, heavy tone.

There were some parts where I wasn’t very sure what was going on, but the tone and the writing made me want to keep reading to find out how it ends.

3.5/5 stars

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If you haven’t read Nancy Christie’s other short story Annabelle, read my review here

We Shadows by Thomm Quackenbush

We Shadows is the first book in the Night’s Dream Series.

If I had to sum this up in one sentence, it would be: You have to have quite the imagination to get into this one.

That being said, it was a very interesting book. Most of the time I didn’t know what was going on, so I am glad that it was only the first book. Hopefully the other two will do better to explain what was happening.

After a night of drinking, the main character, Shane, ends up in a crazy world where she doesn’t know if she is real or not. Dead or alive. Fact or Fiction.

She is in an in between state and only certain people can see her.

Mourning the loss of her boyfriend, she never really recovers from that sadness. He is always the first thing on her mind.

While trying to uncover the secrets of Eliot’s death and her own weird occurrences, she runs into some strange people along the way, though they will turn out to be what she really needs in the end.

A witch and a girl with no name.

With new found powers and strange people around her, Shane must try to figure out what is going on.

It all seems to come together at the end, but I suppose we will only really know after reading the last two.

2.5/5 stars. I don’t feel that there was ever really a take off point for this story. It all seemed to go at the same pace. I was confused much of the time, but through all of that, it was still intriguing. 

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Promise of Departure by LW Montgomery

Promise of departure has a little something for everyone. It has the masculine side with lots of motorcycles, but there is a softer side to it as well.

Motorcycles. Travel. Drinking Problems. Romance. There is a little bit of everything.

I wasn’t expecting to get into this book as much as I did. The beginning of the book is a little slow, and it takes about a chapter to officially figure out what is going on.

The further you read, the more it pulls you in. You slowly feel as though you are in Greg’s world and experiencing his adventures and his rides with him. It really comes out of nowhere. You are trying to figure out where this book is going, then, all of a sudden it is impossible to put down.

Greg has had a strange life. He started up his own video game company with some friends of his. But, then he realizes making so much money really isn’t all it is cracked up to be. He leaves his company, his marriage goes downhill, and all that he has left is his bike Sissy and thoughts of his daughter back home.

He travels to Haiti with the intention to help fix motorcycles after a severe natural disaster. When he gets there, he gets himself into something he never would have imagined.

The character development is really well done, especially for Greg. But even the supporting characters have great arcs, and you aren’t really left asking questions…. Well, at least about the characters.

Then comes the end …. A HUGE cliff hanger! I was almost screaming ‘WHO IS IT’ at my book. I know who I want it to be, but I will save that for the spoilers.

3.5/5 Stars only because the beginning, as I said, is pretty slow. But, by the end, I definitely enjoyed the read a lot.

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Read Ahead for Spoilers!

The Jester by James Patterson

This was a different book for me. Of course, it is Patterson, so it isn’t all that foreign.

It is centered on the Crusades and definitely has a medieval feel to it.

One thing that is clear from the start is who the hero is and who you should be rooting for.

It is a crazy emotional journey though. It takes you through heartbreak and triumph, and back again.

Hugh De Luc is a fool, in more ways than one. But he is a smart fool.

He will go to any length to avenge and save the ones he loves. Even try to take over some of the strongest armies in the land.

Sometimes when you have nothing left to lose, you have to give it your all. 

Will Hugh be proven to just be a fool, or will he save the land he loves?

I guess you will just have to read to find out!

Each character has their own interesting story line and backstory. They are all well developed, and by the end you feel as if you know them personally. This is a specialty of Patterson.

4/5 Stars. A little slow at times, but an interesting story, and when it isn’t slow, it is full of action!

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Dead Ends by Bart Hopkins

Bart Hopkins is the author and Co-Author of two novels. With Dead Ends he puts his writing to the test and forms a short story collection.

Dead Ends is made up of three short stories with dark tones. Things may not always be as they seem. And the endings are there to shock you.

Dead Ends.

Recalculating:

Recalculating is a story where you sort of know the ending from the start, but you are still completely surprised to see how it plays out. You may never see it coming.

When a couple comes upon a GPS system at a garage sale, they decide to take a much needed vacation.

This may be the worst mistake of their lives.

Listening to directions on a GPS may not be all it is cracked up to be.

Sweet Lenora:

The beginning of this story had sort of a Carrie feel to it to me. With a crazy mother and a daughter.

Then it turned out to be very far from that once you get to the end. Though, maybe they need to find Jesus.

This one is unlike Recalculating, because you can’t really guess what is going on.

It keeps you hanging on until the end because it keeps you guessing where the story is headed.

Here’s a piece of advice: you may want to have some garlic around you while reading this.

Character development was surprisingly well done in such a short amount of pages.

Donations:

Donations is easily the creepiest and most horror filled of the three. It is also longer than the other two, so the character and story development really adds to it.

When the one you love is dying, how far will you go to save them?

This short story combines two different story lines, and they come together in a surprising way. It will keep you guessing up until the last page.

It is a very dark story with a mix of romance and craziness.

You may sleep with the lights on after this one.

Overall rating: 5/5 Stars. If you like horror, drama, and short stories, pick this up now. 

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