Category: Book Reviews

by Sean Williams

Published by Del Ray, imprint of Random House

A review by John Irvin

CLICK HERE TO GO AND BUY FATAL ALLIANCE!!!

“Some days were better than others. Maybe this was one of them. He told himself that with all the conviction he could muster, which was plenty for a man in his trade. What could possibly go wrong?”

            From the back cover blurb:

            From across the galaxy they’ve come: agents of both the Republic and the Sith Empire, an investigating Jedi Padawan, an ex-trooper drummed out of the Republic’s elite Blackstar Squad, and a mysterious Mandalorian. An extraordinary auction has drawn them all together—in quest of a prize only one can claim.

Each is prepared to do what he must to possess the treasure, whose value may be the wealth of a world itself. None intend to leave empty-handed. All have secrets, desires, and schemes. And nothing could ever unite them as allies—except the truth about the deadly danger of the object they covet. But can Sith and Jedi, Republic and Empire—enemies for millennia—join as one against the certain doom of the galaxy?

            I like it when a story starts out with a group of individuals who are so different from each other, you know they are sworn enemies or will be. But then, something inconceivable happens and they actually unite together for sake of a greater cause.

            That’s what Fatal Alliance does, takes a Sith, a Jedi, and a Mandalorian and throws them into a situation that could end with the destruction of the galaxy.

            Of course, nothing ever goes as planned, especially such a tentative alliance between such different believers. There may be a betrayal in the mix somewhere.

            This book, though starting off a little thick, will keep any science fiction fan on his or her toes. If you are a Star Wars fan, make sure you add this desperate action-packed, space dram to your collection.

            So, take my recommendation and click this link to go buy it: FATAL ALLIANCE.

As a side note, I am required to inform you that my links provided are affiliate links to the said products. Hey, I’ve got to pay the bills somehow. I hope this is understandable!

I’m also a Patreon artist–the cool thing about Patreon is it allows people to support artists by monthly pledges which allow the artists to have more time to work on their own passions. Here is my account: PATREON.COM. If you’d like to support me, I would be eternally grateful!

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by Ilona Andrews

Published by Ace Books

A review by John Irvin

CLICK HERE TO GO AND BUY MAGIC SLAYS!!!

“The ringing of the phone jerked me from my sleep. I clawed my eyes open and rolled off my bed. For some reason, someone had moved the floor several feet lower than I had expected, and I fell and crashed with a thud.” –Kate Daniels

            From the back cover blurb:

            Kate Daniels may have quit the Order of Knights of Merciful Aid, but she’s still knee-deep in paranormal problems. Or she would be if she could get someone to hire her. Starting her own business has been more challenging than she thought it would be—now that the Order is disparaging her good name. Plus, many potential clients are afraid of getting on the bad side of the Beast Lord, who just happens to be Kate’s mate.

            So when Atlanta’s premier Master of the Dead calls to ask for help with a vampire on the loose, Kate leaps at the chance of some paying work. But it turns out that this is not an isolated incident. Kate needs to get to the bottom of it—and fast, or the city and everyone dear to her may pay the ultimate price…

            Magic Slays is book number five, five times even better—just like its predecessors, this book amplifies the comedic, deadly and dangerous, kick-butt action of the series. I seriously cannot explain my enthusiasm for Kate’s new start.

            Being an entrepreneur myself, I feel Kate’s chagrin for the struggles that comes with starting a new business. But, there is always hope, right?

            But when the Master of the Dead gave her a job, I was a bit on the edge of my seat. I could just sense there was something deeper below the surface. On the edge of my seat, I held on with Kate, watching the mission play forth.

           Laughing at her and Curran’s new level in their relationship, it felt good to see they were coming along. If you tension, you’ll enjoy their …alliance.

            This ubran fantasy, just like the rest of the paranormal adventures of Kate Daniels, did not disappoint in the least, exceeded my expectations.

            So, take my recommendation and click this link to go buy it: MAGIC SLAYS.

As a side note, I am required to inform you that my links provided are affiliate links to the said products. Hey, I’ve got to pay the bills somehow. I hope this is understandable!

I’m also a Patreon artist–the cool thing about Patreon is it allows people to support artists by monthly pledges which allow the artists to have more time to work on their own passions. Here is my account: PATREON.COM. If you’d like to support me, I would be eternally grateful!

Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Or email me at john@johnirvinauthor.com

by John Irvin

A commentary by John Irvin

CLICK HERE TO GO AND BUY MERMAID SEAS FORECAST!!!

“The sterling form was attached to Auria’s lower half. Ending at her waist in transparent frill, the tail belonged to her. The tail was her. She’s a mermaid?”

            I had not realized I never finished blogging commentaries for the rest of my Mermaid Seas trilogy! Can’t believe I forgot that, but oh well, here it is.

            This is book 2 in the trilogy, a favourite of mine. What guy wouldn’t like to be one of the few men in a school where most of the fellow teachers are young beautiful women? Only, for Roger Overstreet, what he doesn’t know is the only other man in the bunch is also not human.

            At the Christmas party, Roger gets the shock of his life.

            There’s also an ancient prophecy that he’s able to decode. A prophecy of the end of the world? What’s new? But then again, what does this prophecy have to do with the mermaids and why does it say the end will come from the ocean?

            I’ll tell you a little secret: I actually got the basis for this story from a dream. I dreamed I was this Roger Overstreet, one of only two men in a school, and I found out all the women in my life were mermaids.

            Yeah, talk about a dream.

            Anyhoo, this Mermaid Seas trilogy has always been a favourite of mine—it went through several revisions before finally being published. At first I wasn’t going to publish, then I rewrote it into a trilogy and thought I’d publish it in print eventually. Then I rewrote it a third time and decided to publish each novella individually as ebooks.

            I simply had to share this strange world with my readers!

Click this link to go check it out: MERMAID SEAS: FORECAST

As a side note, I am required to inform you that my links provided are affiliate links to the said products. Hey, I’ve got to pay the bills somehow. I hope this is understandable!

I’m also a Patreon artist–the cool thing about Patreon is it allows people to support artists by monthly pledges which allow the artists to have more time to work on their own passions. Here is my account: PATREON.COM. If you’d like to support me, I would be eternally grateful!

Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Or email me at john@johnirvinauthor.com

by Rick Riordan

Published by Disney Hyperion

A review by John Irvin

CLICK HERE TO GO AND BUY THE LOST HERO!!!

“Even before he got electrocuted, Jason was having a rotten day.”

            From the inside jacket sleeve:

            Jason has a problem. He doesn’t remember anything before waking up in a bus full of kids on a field trip. Apparently he has a girlfriend named Piper, and his best friend is a guy named Leo. They’re all students at the Wilderness School, a boarding school for “bad kids,” as Leo puts it. What did Jason do to end up here? And where is here, exactly? Jason doesn’t know anything—except that everything seems very wrong.

            Piper has a secret. Her father, a famous actor, has been missing for three days, ever since she had that terrifying nightmare about his being in trouble. Piper doesn’t understand her dream, or why her boyfriend suddenly doesn’t recognize her. When a freak storm hits during the school trip, unleashing strange creatures and whisking her, Jason, and Leo away to someplace called Camp Half-Blood, she has a feeling she’s going to find out, whether she wants to or not.

            Leo has a way with tools. When he sees his cabin at Camp Half-Blood, filled with power tools and machine parts, he feels right at home. But there’s weird stuff, too—like the curse everyone keeps talking about, and some camper who’s gone missing. Weirdest of all, his bunkmates insist that each of them—including Leo—is related to a god. Does this have anything to do with Jason’s amnesia, or the fact that Leo keeps seeing ghosts?

            Join new and old friends from Camp Half-Blood in this thrilling first book in The Heroes of Olympus series. Best-selling author Rick Riordan has pumped up the action, humor, suspense, and mystery in an epic adventure that will leave readers panting for the next installment.”

            Believe, that last line from the jacket is so true! The Lost Hero is a bit long than what I was used to in the Olympian saga from Rick Riordan—but as soon as I started, I knew it wouldn’t take long to finish. From the hints given, I was able to piece some things together in the great mystery of Jason’s lost memories, but the suspense held me through the entire book.

            My favourite aspect about the book was it is set in the world of Percy Jackson—a continuation of the last series, a sequel series I call it. But instead of focusing on the old characters, you get to meet new friends and get to know them.

            Jason is a born leader, Piper is a gorgeous thinker, and Leo is a funny, awkward, guy who loves every girl. They make a great team, even hooking up with a mechanical dragon!

            So, take my recommendation and click this link to go buy it: MAGIC BLEEDS.

As a side note, I am required to inform you that my links provided are affiliate links to the said products. Hey, I’ve got to pay the bills somehow. I hope this is understandable!

I’m also a Patreon artist–the cool thing about Patreon is it allows people to support artists by monthly pledges which allow the artists to have more time to work on their own passions. Here is my account: PATREON.COM. If you’d like to support me, I would be eternally grateful!

Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Or email me at john@johnirvinauthor.com

by Ilona Andrews

Ace Books

A review by John Irvin

CLICK HERE TO GO AND BUY MAGIC BLEEDS!!!

“No matter how carefully I patted the chopped apples into place, the top crust of my apple pie always looked like I’d tried to bury a dismembered body under it.” –Kate Daniels

            From the back cover blurb:

            Kate Daniels works for the Order of Knights of Merciful Aid, officially, as a liaison with the mercenary guild. Unofficially, she cleans up the paranormal problems no one else wants to handle—especially if they involve Atlanta’s shapeshifting community.

            When she’s called in to investigate a fight at the Steel Horse, a bar on the border between the territories of the shapeshifters and the necromancers, Kate quickly discovers there’s a new player in town. One who’s been around for thousands of years—and rode to war at the side of Kate’s father.

            This foe may be too much even for Kate and Curran, the Beast Lord, to handle. Because this time Kate will be taking on family…

            Magic Bleeds is number for in the Kate Daniels series. Just like its predecessors, the book did not disappoint me. When she was sent on that investigation I knew there was nothing but bad about to happen.

            Like always, I felt so drawn into the story I was certain I was right there at Kate’s side, feeling her emotions, hearing her thoughts. She and I think a lot alike, we have the same dry humour, I got all of her jokes.

            The heat between her and Curran is more fervent than ever too.

            I enjoyed how Ilona Andrews is able to mix romance with kick-butt action and adventure in this dark urban fantasy. If you’ve collected the books so far, you really need to check this one out too! You will not be disappointed. Prepare yourself for nights of awesome dueling and mysteries unraveling as Kate tries to save Atlanta again!

            So, take my recommendation and click this link to go buy it: MAGIC BLEEDS.

As a side note, I am required to inform you that my links provided are affiliate links to the said products. Hey, I’ve got to pay the bills somehow. I hope this is understandable!

I’m also a Patreon artist–the cool thing about Patreon is it allows people to support artists by monthly pledges which allow the artists to have more time to work on their own passions. Here is my account: PATREON.COM. If you’d like to support me, I would be eternally grateful!

Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Or email me at john@johnirvinauthor.com

by Joe Schreiber

Published by Del Ray, imprint of Random House

A review by John Irvin

CLICK HERE TO GO AND BUY RED HARVEST!!!

“You only lived because I let you, those eyes said, and Nickter understood that in the end, Lussk’s act of mercy had sentenced him to the greater humiliation of unwarranted survival.”

            From the back of the cover:

            “Unlike other young Jedi sidelined to the Agricultural Corps—those whose abilities have not proved up to snuff—Hestizo Trace possesses one extraordinary Force talent: a gift with plants.

But suddenly her quiet existence among greenhouse and garden specimens is violently destroyed by the arrival of an emissary from Darth Scabrous, a Sith Lord with a fanatical dream poised to become nightmarish reality. For the rare black orchid that Hestizo has nurtured and bonded with is the final ingredient in an ancient Sith formula—crucial to the Dark Lord’s obsession, but with consequences far worse than fatal.

Now, spawned by a heretofore unknown virus, the rotting, ravenous dead are rising, driven by a bloodthirsty hunger for all things living—and commanded by a Sith Master who lusts for power and the ultimate prize: immortality…no matter the cost.”

            If you enjoy Star Wars and are also a fan of Walking Dead or World War Z, then you might actually like this book. Even if you may not be a fan of any of those, you could still appreciate the intense, knock-your-socks-off, style of the story.

            I must say, I’m not a fan of horror. But I do like dark fantasy which can sometimes verge on horror. Yes, I’m weird, I know.

            Red Harvest is kind of in that area. It’s starts off like your regular Star Wars story, with a Jedi or an Padawan and a Sith Lord with his Apprentice of his followers. I liked the unique twist with the talking plants. When the secret plans of the Sith Lord started revealing themselves, I was biting my lips.

            When the horror that unleashed itself on the entire Sith Academy finally happened, I was flipping pages—I know that sounds cliché upon clichés, but I seriously was. I could not read fast enough. Was the main character going to die? Were her friends going to die? How many of these hapless apprentices were going to be sacrificed to this deadly virus?

            This is science fiction with a twinge of horror and fantasy in the mix. Great ingredients in my book, I’ll say.

            So, take my recommendation and click this link to go buy it: RED HARVEST.

As a side note, I am required to inform you that my links provided are affiliate links to the said products. Hey, I’ve got to pay the bills somehow. I hope this is understandable!

I’m also a Patreon artist–the cool thing about Patreon is it allows people to support artists by monthly pledges which allow the artists to have more time to work on their own passions. Here is my account: PATREON.COM. If you’d like to support me, I would be eternally grateful!

Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Or email me at john@johnirvinauthor.com