Free Kindle Copy: "How to Talk to Girls at Parties" by Neil Gaiman

If you're like me and you're looking forward to the Ocean at the End of the Lane  by Neil Gaiman, now is your chance to get a free Kindle copy of the short story "How to Talk to Girls at Parties". Also included is a generous helping of a preview of the novel to come. I don't know how long this is available, but last time I checked, 6/11/13 12:30am. it was still available.

Review: The Tease by Nikki M, Pill

Anna Zendel is a therapist by day and burlesque dancer Velvet Crush by night. She struggles to keep the two worlds apart, but the Darling killer makes that impossible to maintain. He's called the Darling killer because he writes the word darling on his victims after he kills them.

Up until Anna, the victims seemed to be a one shot sort of deal. But with Anna, he seems obsessed. He sends flowers, jewelry, and starts killing people she knows. Who or what is next?

I couldn't put the book down. I read it quickly - in 3 days. I loved the detail especially about the burlesque side of things since that was less familiar.

Characters seemed well developed. The writing/plot was paced well. Kept me turning pages to find out what happened next. And I couldn't help but suspect each new male character that got close to her of being the killer.

It's not quite a stand alone novel because while the action for the moment is wrapped up, Nikki Pill leaves Anna in a place where she is vulnerable and quite possibly introduced to another suspect. I wish the second book was out already so I could see what happens next.

I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

Review: Book of Why by Nicholas Montemarano

Eric Newborn is a disillusioned self-help writer and widower living alone with his female German Shepherd named Ralph. "I didn't know, when I thought I knew it all, that I would join the chorus of askers," he says at one point in the book. Sam Leslie who comes looking for him is one of those askers. Her arrival and their subsequent adventure are the catalyst for Eric to finally tackle writing the book that he has promised the lady in the yellow dress he would write ages ago, The Book of Why.

Interspersed in the book are sections of his previous self help texts and talks. He spoke strongly about the law of attraction among other things: what you put out into the universe is what you get back. And this is one of the things that the other askers puzzle over so hard. Why is it that someone who does good and puts out good or is innocent as is a young baby can still have something bad happen to them? (Don't read it looking for a definitive answer to Why.)

Also throughout the book there are pieces of his life from when he is young through his marriage with Cary that help to explain first his belief system and then the disillusionment with it.

The book is beautifully written.  It will linger on your mind afterwards. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

Review: Six Gun Tarot by R.S. Belcher

Per Goodreads.com:

This title will be released on January 22, 2013.

"Buffy meets Deadwood in a dark, wildly imaginative historical fantasy

Nevada, 1869: Beyond the pitiless 40-Mile Desert lies Golgotha, a cattle town that hides more than its share of unnatural secrets. The sheriff bears the mark of the noose around his neck; some say he is a dead man whose time has not yet come. His half-human deputy is kin to coyotes. The mayor guards a hoard of mythical treasures. A banker’s wife belongs to a secret order of assassins. And a shady saloon owner, whose fingers are in everyone’s business, may know more about the town’s true origins than he’s letting on.

A haven for the blessed and the damned, Golgotha has known many strange events, but nothing like the primordial darkness stirring in the abandoned silver mine overlooking the town. Bleeding midnight, an ancient evil is spilling into the world, and unless the sheriff and his posse can saddle up in time, Golgotha will have seen its last dawn…and so will all of Creation."

My first thought was that the book was a little bit busy. There were too many main characters, too many religions/mythologies, and too much action all at once towards the end. But then when I really thought about it, I felt that somehow it all seems to balance out. Each person involved represents one of the ideologies. Each area of town also seems to have its own belief system. And as for the fight scenes, fights do happen all at once and not so much in a linear fashion. As such, I thought that R.S. Belcher handled the fight scenes well after reflection.

You meet the main characters at a slow enough pace and with enough background to make them memorable and well developed. Some are so memorable, like Maude, that I would love to see more of them in future books. And some of them there is so little, that I would like to learn more about them in future books, such as Deputy Mutt and Sheriff Jon Highfather.

When trouble begins, Maude's neighbor asks her when Maude returns home muddied from an incident in town, "Is it regular trouble or Golgotha trouble?" The townspeople have experience with this sort of weirdness, so it's not surprising when they work together to battle the evil that is threatening to end all existence. I do wonder if H.P. Lovecraft is one of the authors that influenced R.S. Belcher. The monster itself is reminiscent of Lovecraftian horrors. 

The book is aptly called a "weird western" by Mike Resnick. I think it's weird in a good way - part western, part steampunk, part coming of age story, part horror. The characters are interesting and well written. The world is built well and will stand up to repeat visits. I hope that R.S. Belcher visits Golgotha again.
I give this book 4 stars.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book for my unbiased opinion.

Review: The Devil in Silver by Victor LaValle

The Devil in Silver  is a literary horror novel. It is literature, horror and also a bit of social commentary as well. It even manages to include a brief romance. It is really an amazing book. The monster - is it minotaur or man? Is it the devil that some patients claim? But that's not the only monstrous thing going on in the book.

Pepper has got problems. He "accidentally" assaults 3 cops. He didn't know they were cops at the time. The cops don't want to do the paperwork when they arrest him because it would mean working off the clock. So they bring Pepper to New Hyde Hospital to the psychiatric ward. There he is supposed to be kept for a mandatory 72 hour observation period. After the intake session, he meets Dorry who will be a close friend of sorts to him. She gives him a tour and escorts him to his room because, "Everyone should see a friendly face first when they come in here."

The first night after his first full day at the hospital, Pepper has his first encounter with the devil. He sees him as a minotaur with an elderly body and the head of a bison. A nurse interrupts whatever the devil was going to do and gives the Pepper and his roommate, Coffee, sedatives. The other patients tell him the Devil roams free at night. Dorry says it is just a man. Is it a shared hallucination or is it what they really see? Or is it a monster either way and it just doesn't matter what it looks like?

When he is a little less than most cooperative, he is medicated more and somehow 72 hours at New Hyde becomes weeks. Pepper has a lot more time on his hands to get to know the other patients. The major characters are all well developed, especially Dorry, Loochie, and Coffee. And with just a few deft details, LaValle manages to make many of the more minor characters memorable as well. For example, there is Nurse Josephine Washburn who worries about her mother being left all alone and resents the doctor constantly forgetting her name.

The social commentary can be a little confusing when it is not just examples illustrated in the course of the story. The author inserts comments aimed directly at the reader. At first I thought these were more of Pepper's thoughts. Sometimes I found that it added to the story and other times I found it a little distracting, but not enough to ruin my enjoyment of the book.

I found the story to be mostly unpredictable and really unlike anything I've read before. I enjoyed reading it. As with the novella Lucretia and the Kroons also by Victor LaValle and also classified as literary horror, I ended up reading the book twice. It really is an excellent book. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

Review: Lucretia and the Kroons by Victor LaValle

Lucretia and the Kroons is considered literate horror and is an excellent piece of novella length writing. It is also a touching story as it examines the relationship between Lucretia and her best friend Sunny.

Victor LaValle manages to paint an accurate picture of what it's like to be a 12 year old girl. From the beginning with her social concerns about her friends who she sees later "clumped together like socks that had just come out of the dryer" to her personal concerns about appearance and what people think of her, and her longing for Sunny to come back and make it all tolerable, Lucretia is 100% a 12 year old.

Sunny has been away getting treatment for an illness. Just when Sunny gets back and things look like they could become a little more normal for Loochie, as Lucretia is known to friends and family, things go sideways. She sees a Kroon on her fire escape who tells her through gestures that Sunny is upstairs in apartment 6D.

Louis, Loochie's older brother, has told her that 6D is where the Kroon's live and how monstrous they are and dangerous. And here begins a real adventure for Loochie. She feels she must go up there and rescue Sunny who is weak from treatment for the illness and being sick. Inside the apartment as she runs to evade the Kroons, she finds trees and concrete and more. Her resolve is tested more than once. She remembers Louis saying, "Horrors come for kids too. Being young doesn't protect anyone."

Lucretia and the Kroons is definitely worth reading. (In fact, I read it twice.) I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

Review: That Bear Ate My Pants! by Tony James Slater

That Bear Ate My Pants! is an entertaining coming of age story involving more wild things of the non-partying variety than those that drink beer.

After some introspection admitting his acting abilities weren't the best and examining his options, Tony decided that a trip to Ecuador as a volunteer at the Santa Martha Animal Rescue Center was in order. At any given time, the rescue center is home to a variety of animals from monkeys, parrots, tortoises, big cats, to the bear that ate his pants and more. And according to Tony most of them seemed to want a piece of him, including the plant life.

The coming of age part involves the motivation that the ranch owner used on Tony on multiple occasions. When he wanted Tony to do something that he was reluctant to do, he asked him, "Are you a man?" And Tony would find himself doing whatever it was, no matter how absurdly dangerous he thought it was. And the funny thing is, by the end of his time at Santa Martha, after doing all these manly things and from some of his other experiences, he might find that he had indeed become more mature.

Honestly there is a lot more to it than that. His descriptions of their activities on and off the ranch are humorous for the most part and at the same time fascinating. He also makes a good case for learning more Spanish before a trip like that to Ecuador. There is a definite language barrier that he has to fight.

You need to read the book for the humor, the adventure and for the gems of characters such as Lady, Machita, Jimmy, and Toby. I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars for making me laugh out loud on more than one occasion.

Review: The Door to Lost Pages by Claude Lalumiere

The Door to Lost Pages by Claude Lalumière
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was drawn to The Door to Lost Pages because among other things it sounded like a wonderful bookstore, one you'd like to find on a little side street and explore. The chapters in the book are really more short stories that are loosely strung together with Aydee and the store as common elements.


"Bestial Acts" introduces Aydee as a 10 year old leaving home and encountering supernatural beings that in turn give her comfort and lead her to the store. The other chapters have different main focuses, though through it all Aydee continues to grow up. Then in "Lost Girls" Aydee must confront herself, her own worst fear as it turns out.


Perhaps especially intriguing is the tale marked "Coda" which appears after "Lost Girls". It seems to be from the author's perspective and talks about the weird building across the street from him that is changing appearance and aspect daily. He is tempted on more than one occasion to enter the building, but ultimately only one visage will truly tempt him.


The book is well written and the writing is varied from easygoing stories like "Let Evil Beware!" to erotica and coming of age in ":Dregs" to horror that reminded me of H.P. Lovecraft in "Dark Tendrils". Lalumiere shows that he has a wide range of writing that he is capable of and that he can do it well.


I would recommend this book to adult fans of urban fantasy and sci-fi/fantasy. It's not a long read, but it is a good read.
The Door to Lost Pages

I received a copy of this book in order to provide my unbiased review.


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