Revelations by Léia Kiuski

Thera’s Eyes Series Book 1

Revelations sets the foundation for the Thera’s Eyes series.

It follows a group of young people who are given special gifts. They are considered “Warriors” and are the only ones that are able to fight the demons that threaten to destroy their town of Silver Blade.

The main character, Beth, was specially chosen by Thera (a goddess) herself to be the leader, but she is also the main target of the demons threatening them and the town. Her friends are her guardians and their job is to help fight the demons and make sure that Beth is safe and stays alive in order to carry out the necessary tasks.

The book begins with Beth struggling to accept her current life situations. Her parents recently died in a freak plane crash (which is later explained in the book). Her twin brother was also on the plane but mysteriously had no physical damage. He was in a coma though, and the doctors could not figure out why or when he would come out of it.

Beth constantly wakes up screaming from what the doctors tell her are “night terrors” although she doesn’t quite believe those are exactly what she is experiencing.

When a stranger named Leon comes into town and rents out Beth’s guest house, everything is set into motion. The warrior in her and her friends is awakened, and their abilities are used to fight the demons.

There is one main quest, they must find and close the portal before noon on Halloween day, or else the demons will have complete access to their world. This includes the strongest demons that they have not yet had to come in contact with. They must accomplish this all while trying to protect the town and the people in it.

Did I mention Beth and all of her friends are still in school?

They miss basically every day of school, but because her parents are dead, and the parents of the other warriors are out of the country, no one can be contacted and made aware of the problem.

I didn’t think I would find myself connecting with these characters and getting as invested in them as I did. By the end I was really rooting for them, and rooting for the budding romance that takes shape as well.

The ending leaves much to be imagined, but I would assume that is because this is only book one in a series, and the answers will be revealed in the upcoming books.

The writing was pretty smooth. I felt that it had a pretty good flow, and despite coming in at about 200 pages (PDF version so I don’t know what the published versions will be), it was a pretty quick read. The chapters were kept relatively short so it didn’t seem as though it was dragging on.

My one complaint is that it does need some more editing before being called a finished product. There were time were I found the incorrect word being used (have instead of has), and that was pretty consistent throughout the book.

Otherwise, the writing overall was pretty good. It kept my attention which isn’t always an easy thing to do with sci-fi type books.

4/5 stars. 

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Pascal’s Wager by Mark Jacobs

What a great way to start off a new year – By reading a thrilling murder/mystery type book!

Pascal is a private investigator living in Las Vegas, and above all, his goal is to win the World Series of Poker.

After giving up his promising academic career of attaining a Philosophy degree, he decides moving to Vegas and pursuing his poker dreams is a better idea.

When a prominent figure in the Vegas hotel scene gets murdered, his daughter hires Pascal to find answers. Her mother is accused of the murder, and she knows that she is innocent. It seems almost impossible that it would be anyone else, so Pascal has a hard job ahead of him.

Meanwhile, the daughter that hired Pascal is also arrested and accused of murdering her half-brother. As if his current mess wasn’t enough, he has to try to get her off as well.

Pascal then finds himself be threatened by a very prominent Chicago crime family. While it seems to be a big problem at first, it ends up helping him put the whole mess together and he finds answers through the chaos.

Pascal is a fun character. His constant references to philosophy and poker make for an entertaining read. He is an interesting person, and I would like to read more books with him as the main character. I feel as though he is the sort of character that you could make a series out of such as Alex Cross or Lindsay Boxer just to name my favorites.

I would like to hear more of his backstory, and I would like to see him actually go on to win the poker World Series.

The writing was easy to follow. It didn’t allow for any boring moments, and the flow of the book ….. flowed well. It all ran together well, and none of the parts seemed out of place.

5/5 stars.

It was nice to experience Vegas again through this one. I haven’t been there in a while! :) 

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Sign Changes by Bart Hopkins Jr.

Sign Changes was an interesting book.

It follows four different story lines that seemingly are all connected despite the fact that they take place at different times sometimes centuries apart.

What I gathered from it was that it was a book about language and communication. It makes you think about how language was made and how it has carried throughout time to keep communication consistent.

The stories by themselves were interesting, but where it lost me was when they were supposed to connect. Maybe it would have been a bit more clear is each story was told in its entirety, then it moved on to the next. But, it jumped around so much that I found myself confused more often than not. I would just start getting into one of the stories, then it would switch to one of the others.

I feel like the idea for this book was right on point as it was really interesting, the execution was just a bit off to me. It was hard to follow at times.

In saying that, I did enjoy the writing style, or maybe I should say the author's voice. I did not find myself bored reading it. I don't feel the author went over the top or tried too hard in the execution which is something you find a lot when dealing with books that are a little different from the norm.

So overall, the actual writing was good, but the layout and arrangement (or execution) was a bit off. 

3/5 stars. I liked it, but I was confused. 

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Soldier Hill by Phil Rossi

Soldier Hill is a touching story celebrating the lives of soldiers who have fought for their country.

Eddie is a high school kid. He doesn't do well in school, and he doesn't know what he wants to do with his life. His guidance counselor doesn't think he is going anywhere with his life. Aside from all of this, Eddie shows how big of a heart he has.

When Eddie discovers a tablet honoring a boy named Billy on his school grounds, he decides to find out more about him. Having someone die who lived so close to him really hit home. He felt a connection to Billy and wasn't sure why.

With the Vietnam War taking too many young people and affecting families all over the country, Eddie was determined to find out who Billy was, where he came from and who his family is.

This book follows Eddie is his adventure from researching at the library to asking around town.

Joe is a lonely old man in town that everyone talks about. They spread nasty rumors about him being crazy and even a little creepy. There is a room in his house that is closed and locked so no one can venture in.

When Eddie becomes friends with Joe despite everyone’s warnings, he uncovers all of the answers he needs.

When the tribute to Billy is then threatened to be destroyed by contractors taking down the trees around the school, Eddie enlists the help of his good friend Dave to save the tree and the tablet in order to protect the memory and tribute to Billy. Through much hard work and determination they preserve the memorial, and it turns out even better than they ever could have imagined. 

This is a wonderful story about being selfless and honoring those who sacrifice so much their country.

It is touching and memorable for being just a short novella.

I really enjoyed the writing style as well. A lot of times with historical fiction, (okay, it isn't THAT far back in history, but stick with me) authors tend to try too hard to make it authentic, and it just ends up being boring and having no good flow to it. I was pleasantly surprised to find that was not the case with this one. It had a nice flow to it, and I didn't find myself bored at any part of the story.

I did find myself wondering why there was so much focus on the “crazy” old man, but it all comes full circle and makes sense at the end.

The story is sweet, the writing is on-point, and it is easy to get through.

5/5 stars from me. I did really enjoy it. 

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The Christmas Town by Elyse Douglas

The Christmas Town is a beautiful time travel book about happiness and love.

I almost just want to leave it there, because that is all you need to know, but I shall continue.

The Christmas Town begins with two women trying to get home for Christmas. When a large winter storm threatens their journey, they must share a car from the airport.

One their way home, they get lost and end up crossing a mysterious bridge. They ended up in a small, seemingly vintage, town on the other side of the bridge When they notice that other people’s reactions to them and their car were those of fear, they figured out something was a bit off.

When they fall in love with two army boys fighting in World War II, they have a difficult decision to make. Do they stay out of their time in place to wait for their men to come home from war, or do they ignore their hearts and try to get home?

It is easy to find yourself rooting for the girls and their men to be together. It was such a happy and uplifting story that just needs to be read.

The Christmas town is a beautifully written story. It sucks you in from the first page, and fully engages you up until the very last.

The story is funny, happy, and sort of magical.

The characters are all likable and all very well-rounded.

This is a great book to read during the holiday season, and it could really be great during any time of the year.

5/5 stars. 

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The TOP SECRET Diary of Davina Dupree (Aged 10) by S K Sheridan

This cute little book is a Children’s Fiction book.

It is written completely in diary format coming from Davina Dupree.

Her parents sent her to boarding school, and she decided to keep a journal with her to write down her experiences.

During the first part of her year there, Davina and her roommate discover there is just something not quite right with their art teachers.

Being typical young girls, they decide to be little detectives. This was what I liked the most about this book. Kid’s always have fun trying to be detectives, so reading this book will be fun for them to read and relate to.

They help to uncover the truth about their mysterious teachers and help save people’s lives and famous artwork all at the same time.

This is a cute story for children. I even enjoyed it, and it is a book I would have thoroughly enjoyed reading it as a kid.

It was written well for children to read and enjoy. They will be able to relate to the characters and their imagination can run wild with all of the plot twists.

5/5 stars. This book would make a great gift for young readers.  

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Déjà Vu and Fritters Too by Janet Sharp

This was an interesting book. My first impression of it was that is it pretty long.

It is pretty complicated, but it starts to make sense the further into it that you get. It follows two different people living separate lives after they meet for the first time at the beginning of the novel.

David is an ex-marine that takes on a tough job after returning from Afghanistan. He must go under cover and reconnect with his childhood buddies to join into their gang activities. He becomes an informant for the authorities. Taking this job puts him and everyone around him in danger.

Jenny is a college girl that comes from a very financially stable household. She is a good person and volunteers every Saturday at St. Vincent’s giving food out to those who are less fortunate. She loves her volunteer job.

These two main characters come together at the beginning of the novel when Jenny is attacked and raped by a gang of teenagers that hang around the area where St. Vincent’s is located. David comes to her rescue and fights off the boys before more damage can be done to Jenny. David falls for her almost instantly, but he knows that his lifestyle is very risky, and he doesn’t want to put Jenny in any more harm.

Once Jenny’s roommate finds out about the tragic incident, she selfishly makes it all about her and moves out of the apartment they share, forcing Jenny to move also and start a whole new life somewhere else.

Jenny finds a nice apartment closer to her college and becomes instant friends with the other students that also live in the building.

Meanwhile, David is stuck doing “business runs” for the gang. He has to maintain a balance of doing his job correctly while remembering the details to report.

I was very conflicted while reading this one.

The idea and the story were right on. It was an interesting theme and story that I really enjoyed. I found myself trying to guess what came next, and when I couldn't guess I was left wondering. The way David and Jenny have two separate lives, but they keep intertwining makes for a really good and consistent story.

What I felt was off was the writing style. The writing was so textbook and formal that it was hard to get through at times. Some passages just ran really dry and were almost a bit boring.

Because of the formality of the wording, the conversations between characters were also extremely unbelievable. They did not seem natural which messed with the flow of the book.  

There were some grammar mistakes such as random quotation marks in places where there are no quotes.

There was also an area in the book where the spelling of Jenny’s name wen from Jenny to Jennie, and then it switched back.

Along with this, there seemed to be too many filler chapter for me. A lot of the chapters could be taken out, and the book would flow much better.

Overall, I would give it 3/5 stars.

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Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone that celebrates had a very wonderful day!

I sure did!

Keep readin'!

Love, 

Courtney

A Magical and Inspiring Book Two: And Then There’s Haley by Marissa Marchan

This book is the sequel to A Boy Named Ray. My review of that one is HERE.

Theo, Mary, and Ray are back for this one. There is a new addition to their family, though. Theo and Mary have a daughter named Haley. She is just as perfect and gifted as Ray.

She shares his abilities of being able to talk to nature except she connects more with plants and animals, and Ray with natural forces such as wind and water.

This is just a nice feel good story. It is in the realm of science fiction, so some of the reactions and story lines are not realistic, but it isn’t meant to be.

What I found to be pretty interesting with this book was that every chapter told a different story, but it all came together to tell one big story. It was fun to put together.

For being so short, each character was well developed. This may be due to the fact that we were introduced to Theo, Mary & Ray in the first book, but nonetheless, I did not feel disappointed with any of the character developments. It was done very well.

The story was also well rounded. It completed the story circle beginning in the first book. Theo and his family are able to return to the town that they were run out of for being ugly. When Theo and Haley return after hearing that the once beautiful town has gone to ruin, they help restore the town with the help of Haley and Ray’s unique gifts. The family is accepted back into the town, and everyone is happy again.

While unrealistic at times, the real story these two books are telling is that doing a simple nice deed for someone can go a long way in the end. That is a lesson I feel people need to be reminded of more often. These books do a good job of conveying these messages through fun and interesting mini story lines within one complete story.

3.5/5 stars. I really enjoyed it, but there needs to be some editing  due to some grammar mistakes and wrong pronouns. 

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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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