Review: After All by Deborah Raney

Thanks to Glass Road PR for letting me participate in this Blog Tour.



About the Book

Eighteen months after the tragic Grove Street Fire took the life of her husband, David, and four other heroic firefighters, Susan Marlowe thinks she’s finally beginning to heal. But then she discovers that David carried a secret to his grave. A secret that changes everything she thought their marriage had been. For the sake of their sons, can Susan forgive the unforgivable? Andrea Morley lost her closest friend in the fire. But she has no right to mourn him. Instead, she must forever grieve in silence—because her dearest friend was someone else’s husband. Peter Brennan carries the weight of the world on his shoulders. As Hanover Falls’ fire chief, he was responsible for the brave firefighters who lost their lives that awful November night. Can he ever shake the feeling that he should have somehow prevented the tragedy? As he tries to rebuild the team at Clemens County’s Station 2, it seems he might find comfort in the arms of the woman he least expected.

For more information about After All please visit Deborah Raney's website. You can Like her on Facebook or follow her on Twitter.

You can also purchase a copy of After All from my Amazon store.

My Review

I've not had the chance to read the first two books in the Hanover Falls series. And while I think that it would have given me a better understanding of the emotions that were associated with some of the parts of the story I don't feel like I had missed out from not reading them. The book was well written and it gave all the major background information so that I didn't feel lost in what was going on.

I liked the main character Susan. She was a bit naive though. I'm not sure if her naivety comes from the fact that she was so busy with her own life that she didn't have a chance to see what was going on around her or if she was just a naive person. Because she did seem to have things together. 18 months after the death of her husband she's running a homeless shelter by herself. And despite the town's objections to the shelter she seems to be doing at least an ok job with it. I know if I lost my husband it seems like it would take more strength than I have to be almost solely responsible for the lives of so many people. But I also think that her ability to throw herself into the homeless shelter comes from needing something to keep herself occupied so that she's not dwelling on the loss of her husband. As in the few times that she is alone with nothing going on her mind does seem to wander to her husband.

The story had quite a bit going on. There was a budding love story, some mystery, and tons of emotions. I didn't get a good sense of who most of the other characters really were, and I would have liked to have a bit more insight into Peter and even Susan's son Davie. But overall the story was good and it kept me hooked. I finished it in one day as I was just so drawn into everything that was going on.

Review: Drawn to Injustice by Timothy Masters with Steve Lehto

Thank you to Steve Lehto for sending me this book for review.



About the Book

Timothy Masters was a lonely, troubled teenager with a penchant for gory artwork when he first saw Peggy Lee Hettrick…

…her dead, mutilated body nearly frozen in the early morning of Fort Collins, Colorado. Not believing it could really be a dead body, thinking he was the victim of yet another prank by his abusive classmates, the fifteen-year-old didn’t go to the police—but they came to him. So began a decade-long investigation led by a relentless detective who was sure that Masters was the killer, even without a shred of physical evidence.

Against all reason, a conspiracy of silence and circumstantial evidence eventually put Masters behind bars. Only the determination of a lone investigator who believed the young man was innocent would reveal the shocking truth, and free Masters after ten years in prison.

This is the compelling true story of one life ended in blood and murder, one life ruined by coincidence and prejudice, and justice long denied but finally found.

You can purchase a copy of Drawn to Injustice on my Amazon Store.

My Review

 It's hard for me to review this one without judging what happened to Timothy Masters. He was accused of a murder he clearly didn't commit and was convicted because a detective didn't want to admit he'd made a mistake?!?!?! I know that kind of stuff happens more often than we know of, but it just killed me to read this story. Throughout the entire thing I just wanted to smack the detective and the prosecutors that were working on this case.

Having said that the story was really good. It was filled with suspense, I think it's because we obviously know how it ends, and all the major plot twists, but I wanted to know exactly how these things played out. With each new chapter I couldn't help but try to figure out what was going to happen in that chapter. It really made me not want to put this one down. I just wanted to keep reading because I wanted to know how this all happened. This one would have made a really good fiction book. Master's life had so many twists in it that I kept thinking to myself "I can't believe this really happened". But it did, which is so sad.

The writing was really good too. Everything just flowed. The writing was more like a conversation than a report or a listing of facts. That's a weird way to describe it, but it was just so easy to read, it felt so natural. I liked that Masters gives us a peek into what was going on in his head while all of this was going on. I can't really imagine going through what he went through, but having his "commentary" made it at least a little more understandable.

This is a well-written book about a horrible tragedy and how it ruined one man's life. It sickens me that this happened, but I'm glad that Masters had the courage to put his story out there. It was enjoyable to read and it brings light to a flaw to our justice system that likely still claims victim today.

Just a note: my copy was an ARC. There are supposed to be some pictures in the final release, these were not included in the ARC.

Review: The Sara Chronicles Book 2 - Evolution of Us by L. Hughes

Thanks to Reader Spoils and the author L. Hughes for letting me review this one!



About the Book

What Happens When Magical Powers Can't Be Turned Off?
A year after restoring the balance of good and evil to the magical Land of the Keepers, young Sara, James and Thomas are laying low -- living separately to protect them from the vanquished members of Garren that they helped defeat. But it's not the only danger they face. Suddenly, the magical powers they possess begin to possess them. Sara's the first to notice: her powers now include the ability to control weather. But as she begins to use them, the powers run amok, leaving a trail of freak snowstorms and record heat waves. Meanwhile, people around them are mysteriously disappearing; simply vanishing into thin air.
Now, the three of them must reunite in the Land of the Keepers to learn to control their awesome powers and fix whatever is stealing people away. It is there they discover there is much more to their enemy, the hate-filled Garren, than they realized. The battle is just beginning; and before it is over, someone will have to pay a very high price to keep several worlds safe.
Packed with adventure, this second entry in The Sara Chronicles is a fast-paced and savvy fantasy thriller that will keep you guessing right up until the shocking finale.

You can purchase a copy of The Sara Chronicles Book 2- Evolution of Us from my Amazon store.

My Review


I'm not sure how to approach this review. I liked the book. It had a good plot, there were some twists that made it very interesting. The characters were well developed, I liked Sara - she was compassionate and reminded me of myself. The dialog was a bit off for me. I had a hard time of keeping track of who was saying what and had to keep going back and re-reading to figure out who was talking.

I really did like Sara, she was a good person. I would have liked to have read the first book so that I had a more complete picture of Sara, but Hughes did a good job of keeping the reader informed about the background that was missed from the first book. I didn't get a great sense of understanding of the rest of the characters, but I wasn't turned off by it. I think with all that was going on in this one that it would have deterred way too much from the story to go into much detail about the other characters. But I could tell that there was a great connection between the characters, which was central to the story.

I liked the setting of the book. It was neat to see the characters interact with the environment they were in. Olie seemed to have the most control, but being that he was the elder of the group and (if I'm perciving the story right) the leader that brought them all together. Hughes does a great job of describing the wonderful world of the keepers. I could picture beautiful landscapes and buildings, even when the Garren were part of the picture the world around them still seemed so beautiful.

The story itself is very fast paced. It reads quick and moves quick. There's not really any "lulls" to the story. Once it gets going, it keeps moving till the end. And it takes off pretty close to the beginning of the book. It jumps through most of the parts that would have slowed the story down. These times aren't just gone, there is an explanation as to what is going on during the "jumps". So I didn't feel like I was missing anything. The story is full of adventure. There's so many battles with evil and within themselves that I was on the edge of my seat through most of the book.

My only issue was the dialogue, but there was so much more to this one that made up for that. I will be reading the next two in the series for sure, and I'll probably get my hands on the first one so that I can get a fuller picture of the wonderful world Hughes has created.

Review Crazy Dangerous by Andrew Klavan

Thanks to Litfuse Publicity Group for letting me be a part of this blog tour. You can see the entire blog tour schedule here.



About the Book

"You probably want to hear about Jennifer and the demons and how I played chicken with a freight train and—oh yeah—the weird murder and how I found out about it—you're definitely going to want to hear about that. But first, I have to tell you about the stupidest thing I ever did . . ."

Sam Hopkins is bored with his status as a preacher's kid. So when a group of guys notorious for being in trouble offers him friendship, he accepts. Before long, he has several new skills—including hot-wiring cars.

At school, there's an eccentric loner named Jennifer. When Sam defends her from being bullied, she begins to seek him out as her only friend. Her ramblings often seem illogical . . . but then start to contain grains of truth. One leads Sam to discover that one of his new friends has been killed. And then she tells him, "I'm looking for the devil." Sam doesn't know what that means, but he knows it's a matter of life and death that he figure it out.

Everyone else thinks Jennifer is suffering from schizophrenia. But Sam is starting to wonder if there could be something prophetic in her words. Discovering the truth is going to be both crazy and dangerous

For more information about Crazy Dangerous you can visit Andrew Klavan's website.

You can purchase a copy of Crazy Dangerous from my Amazon Store.

My Review

I LOVED this book. I couldn't wait to see what was going to happen next and yet the closer I got to the end the less I wanted it to end.

Sam is just a normal kid. Not really outstanding at anything. He's a preacher's son and stays out of trouble. But then he starts hanging with the wrong crowd and starts to get into trouble. I didn't feel bad for Sam, as I think what he was going through was fairly normal - the feelings of wanting to fit in and being awed by a lifestyle that he wasn't used to. I think he knew what he was doing was wrong and yet he did it anyway. But he absolutely got more than he bargained for. And once he befriends Jennifer he appeared to be way in over his head. Even though Jennifer is portrayed as being "crazy" I kind of liked her. She had mental problems, but what was going on to her was as real as it could be. It was Jennifer I felt sorry for. She just kept getting blown off because she was a bit weird and the way she was interpreting what was going on to her seemed too odd to be true so no one believed her.

I loved the story. I was drawn into the story immediately. Jennifer's abnormal way of describing what was going on was a neat idea. Jennifer was telling us what was going to happen, but it took a bit to "unscramble" what she was saying. Plus the story just goes, there's a few slow parts but for the most part this one keeps moving right to the end. It wasn't the kind of fast paced story that drains you, but it does move pretty quickly.

I would say that even though this is a YA book that it would be enjoyable for anyone to read. The writing was good and I didn't feel like it was being dumbed-down to meet the younger audience. It was just a good story.

Review: Unlocking the Poet's Realm by Matt Wiebusch

I have to thank the author Matt Wiebush and Reader Spoils for letting me review this book.



About the book

Life in the seventh grade isn't easy for Minnie, and then one day, she discovers a magic box that transports her to another land in the future. The animals that have dominion over this land have brought her here for one very specific reason: to save their world from an evil presence.

For more information about Unlocking the Poet's Realm please visit Matt Wiebush's website.

You can purchase a copy of Unlocking the Poet's Realm on my Amazon store.

My Review

The message in this book was awesome. I think that most kids (and adults) today could benefit from reading Minnie's inspiring journey through Buval. The book deals with self-esteem, self-worth, pride, and even bullying. It's very relevant to what most kids are dealing with on a regular basis.

I LOVED Minnie. She started out unsure of herself and afraid to stand up for herself. She is living in a home without love. Her parents seem to be in a loveless relationship, which has lead to Minnie feeling unloved. Minnie's only positive outlet seems to be her neighbor Issac. Although there are some "shady" dealings with the disappearance of Issac's wife and her parents discourage her from spending time with him. Minnie is bullied at school - which ultimately leads to her journey to Buval. Through her journey she finds herself and realizes that her perception of herself is wrong and that she is a worthy person and has gifts that she can share with others if she just believes in herself.

Buval is an enchanting place. The animals in Buval are very similar to animals that we are familiar with, but there are slight differences. The descriptions of these animals was great. I really liked that they were animals that we would be familiar with but yet were still different enough to make the story exciting. Not that the story needed the added excitement, but it did add to it. The story itself was very exciting. As Minnie is sent on a quest through Buval she finds herself in many predicaments. Each one a unique situation that requires Minnie to believe in herself and her abilities to get through. The journey centers on a poem that acts as a riddle to help Minnie continue on her journey. I liked the poem idea, it was different and it was fun to try and work the riddles out as the story progressed. My only criticism is that the book took me a while to read. I'm hard headed and won't put a book down until I finish it, but for someone with a little less patience it might be a bit overwhelming. But the end of the journey and the end of the story are well worth the wait.

While I enjoyed the book as an adult I think that for a pre-teen/teen dealing with self-esteem issues it would be very beneficial for them to read. The theme of self-worth is strewn throughout the book and I think is presented in a way that can help a child see themselves and their own self-worth through Minnie's story.