Indie Fiction Kids - Rob the Robot Arr Marks the Spot

I love free books. I recently won a copy of Rob the Robot Arr Marks the Spot during 1889 Labs #1889party. After thumbing through the book, I wasn't sure that it was my kind of story, so I decided that my husband would be in charge of reading this one to our daughter.

This plan blew up in my face rather quickly. A few nights after getting the book, my husband went out with some friends, and Ava wanted to read the robot book. No biggie, Rob the Robot was the bedtime story.

There were a few reasons I figured that this book would bore me, here is a quick list: robots, space travel, pirates, skulls and crossbones, and treasure maps. I sat down with Ava and allowed myself an internal sigh, I would rather have read Fancy Nancy or Little Critter, but I would endure a hunt for treasure because she liked the book.

Boy, was I wrong about this book. It was excellent. I already knew that the pictures were incredible from my cursory glance, and after reading it a I noticed more positive qualities. As far as illustrations go, this book can brag bright colors, attention to details, and my favorite, informative illustrations adding details to the story like all good illustrations should.

As far as the actual story went, I was also pleasantly surprised. The basic story line is of four robot friends traveling through outer space when they find a bottle floating along the way. In the bottle, of course, is a treasure map with a big X. Obviously, X marks the spot of the treasure.

The story, while intense at times and bordering on scary (for a two-year-old), never actually scared my daughter, which as a parent, made me happy. While on their adventure, the robots hear sounds coming from a cave that they believe are a monster. The monster soon turns out to be a giant robot pirate. Yes, a friendly, giant robot pirate. The robots, including the pirate, continue to work together to find the X that marks the spot.

Rob the Robot has another bragging right: educational content. The parent and educator inside of me squeals with delight every time I read this book because of the learning potential. Maps, compasses, counting backward, vocabulary with quick, relevant explanation, and my favorite, the use of the word jig, which led my husband to show our daughter what 'dancing a jig' meant.

Rob the Robot is colorful, fun, has some learning focuses, and is well written with no glaring grammatical errors or typos. My only irritation with the book was the number of sentences that ended with exclamation points. I felt that the over use detracted from those lines that were really meant to be read with emphasis. That being said, I look forward to reading this with my children for a long time, I just wish there were more Rob the Robot titles to keep us busy.

Indie Author Monique Mensah - Who Is He To You?

An abusive father. A boyfriend with split personalities. An unloving husband. A man who had a horrible upbringing. A father who loved his daughter in all the wrong ways. A man who ruins the lives of all the women he touches.

Simone is a young teenage girl who appears to have the perfect life. Her parents love and adore her, she has enough money to go to the best school, is undeniably beautiful, and has brains. She also has a father who is unable to stop himself from hurting her. Though he claims to love his little girl, he sneaks into her bedroom night after night and rapes her.

Ryan is a strong, independent woman able to take care of herself. When she meets a man and he begins flaking after a few months of dating, she begins to lose it. After he starts missing dates, forgetting to call, and eventually begins to verbally and emotionally tear her down, Ryan becomes as addicted to her little yellow pill as she is to him. He continually strings her on with empty promises of marriage, and she continues to follow.

Jessica is a woman who never dares to stand up to her husband. She tries desperately to please him with all that she has, but it never seems to be enough. Her husband doesn't respect her and has told her that when he is ready, he will leave her and will take everything they have. Jessica puts up with him because he “rescued” her from a terrible life of poverty and “built” her into the refined woman that she is now. She feels that she is nothing without her bastard husband.

What happens when the lives of these three women collide? Murder.

Each chapter of this book was told through the medium of the different characters. The story starts with an introduction to Simone, moving then to Ryan, and finally, Jessica.

The hardest part of this book to read was Simone talking about her father and how she loved him despite the abuse. She believed that he was a good man and truly loved her. She told herself that he simply could not help himself. The hardest after Simone was reading through the eyes of her father and seeing how he felt about his daughter and his troubled past.

Jessica and Ryan were equally frustrating to read because they had a choice. Neither of these woman had to stay. They didn't have to face the abuse of the man they were with. They simply felt compelled, for different reasons, to stay while they were continually cut down and mistreated. Woman go through this each day, and the men in their lives get away with it because they have systematically beaten their wives and girlfriends down until they believe that they don't deserve better. The author managed to show exactly how each woman had forged a connection with the man in her life and how she didn't think she is strong enough to break free of him.

The author does a good job at keeping the connection between the women hidden until she is ready for the reader to understand where the plot is headed. I never, at any point, felt that I didn't have enough information, I simply felt that I didn't have all of the facts yet, and that in time the plot would unfold. I spent time throughout the book guessing at the connection, but was surprised in the end.

The author's writing style was well crafted, giving each character their own voice. Even without chapter headers, I could quickly have known which character's life was being described simply by the author's voice.

A problem I found was some dialogue was difficult to understand, especially when teenagers or children were speaking. I felt the author overused urban vernacular and small sections of dialogue were nearly impossible for me to understand.

This story stuck with me long after I was done reading the book. I found myself wondering about the plot, not that it didn't make sense, just pondering the situations and events that led to the conclusion. How would I have handled a husband like Jessica's or a boyfriend like Ryan's. Most troubling of all was, what would I do if my daughter was in Simone's position. I came to no hard conclusions, but I am pretty certain that I wouldn't follow the same paths that these characters took. I feel that I would make mistakes along the way, but they wouldn't be the same mistakes that these women made.

Monique Mensah is definitely on my list of authors to read again.

Indie Author A.M. Harte - Hungry for You

Zombies. Brain eating Zombies. Well, not all of these zombies are brain eaters. Some are down-right thoughtful and compassionate. Sound strange? Well, it is. Strange in a good way.

A.M. Harte does an excellent job bringing the zombie world to life, that is if zombies can be considered alive. She gives the reader just enough details to want more and force them into reading another tale before bed. There are stories of zombies that feed from human meat, sex, and even some who feed off of animal products so they don't have to kill humans.

This is a collection of short stories is filled with horrifying tales and love stories, sometimes mixed into one truly disturbing tale. One of which is that of a man who doesn't want his wife to know that she is quickly dying and becoming a zombie, but also doesn't want the zombie horde to kill her before her transformation is complete.

The story that inspired the title of the book, “Hungry for You”, was my personal favorite. In this alternate reality, zombies are 'legalized' and some people allow zombies to feed off of them through sex. Without feeding, of course, a zombie will begin to decay more rapidly and die. To protect the zombie population, laws have been put into place simply because 'zoobs' lack any brain function to defend themselves, or even open doors so they are able to find food.

Police officer Retta is a zombie sympathizer who is guilt ridden after her sister and boyfriend became zombies and eventually meet their final death. While on patrol with her unsympathetic partner, Officer Retta sees some suspicious signs and enters a building to find a zombie who has been assaulted and tied to a bed. Retta decides to bring the zombie into the station and try to question him about what happened inside that old building. Eventually, Retta decides that the zombie needs to feed before they can continue their questioning. The problem arises when he refuses to feed off of any of the willing donors, something that has never been observed before. It turns out that this zoob has eyes for only one person, and is willing to die for, or because, of her.

How far would you go to save someone? What would your guilt drive you to do if it meant saving one life? Would you even consider zombies alive? These are the questions I found myself asking as I thought, she needs to save him, and, how romantic, he loves her. Then I got to the thought of, eww, he's a zombie, he isn't even alive. I quickly reminded myself that zombies are, as of right now, only fiction, and I wouldn't be faced with any of these hard decisions any time soon.

This is a great book of zombie tales to read in short bursts, or all at once if zombies are your thing. I have to admit, I'm looking forward to my next A.M. Harte read.

Indie Author Kit Iwasaki - Vampire General Intern with the Vampire

Another vampire novel? Yep, another one. Vampire novels seem to have taken over the bookstore and ebookstore shelves. Try telling someone that you are reading a fantasy novel about vampires. You may be shocked by their reaction, or you may be that person, the one looking down on me for reading “yet another vampire novel”. Well, here are the ins and outs of this particular debut novel by Kit Iwasaki.

Vampire General opens with a steamy scene in which Aline, resident doctor and human being, is in a supply closet with her boyfriend, also a resident and human being. The cliched scene is quickly interrupted by pagers sounding, alerting Aline and Tim to an incoming emergency.

As they rush to the Emergency Room, Tim gets a critical patient who eventually codes while Aline gets stuck with a patient who is capable of walking himself in. Aline's patient, Dr. Rocque, is insistent that he be able to see his patient, Clive. Clive is, of course, Tim's patient.

Aline is reluctant to grant Rocque's request, but eventually gives in to Rocque's charm. In her attempt to help Rocque, Aline succeeds in stopping Clive's heart while Tim and another doctor watch. After the stunt of killing a patient, Aline is dismissed by this hospital, and Tim, for good.

Depressed, Aline heads home only to become more depressed with the lack of comfort food available in her apartment. Her self wallowing is cut short by Rocque knocking on her door in the middle of the night.

Aline finds herself following Rocque to a hospital unknown to her in a questionable part of town. Before entering the hospital, Rocque has one condition that Aline must abide by: she must keep her mouth shut.

When Aline walks through the doors of the hospital, she is horror struck. She steps off of the street and into a world that she never imagined could exist. There were things in this hospital that didn't exist in Aline's worst nightmares. She not only has to treat patients that could harm or kill her, she has to work with those who are far scarier. From vampires to mermaids, Aline finds herself fighting for her patients' lives, fighting for her right to treat her patients, and could find herself fighting for her own life if anyone were to find out that she is human and not the vampire that Rocque has claimed that she is.

Vampire General is a new twist on Vampire culture that I haven't seen in the past. I've seen variations of vampires as doctors with human patients or supernatural patients, but this was a first for me. What makes this twist so desirable to the reader is that the doctor herself has no idea what she is walking into and has her assumptions of the entire world thrown out the window all in the course of a few moments.

This novel seemed to read like a single episode of a television drama. I often find myself wishing that my favorite television show was a novel instead of an hour long show. Books are far better at expanding on ideas and scenes and one episode would be plenty of material for a well written book. The book followed a simple story line of a girl who lost her job, got a new one, and had to overcome problems in the her new workplace. Granted, her workplace problems were far greater than her coworkers not liking her or a treacherous commute. The story, however, lacked a subplot. Yes, there was lust and sexual tension, but it never went anywhere. There was no scandal, no deceit. Aline was able to keep herself in check despite the impossible pull of vampire pheromones.

I found it odd that the author never discussed vampire diets. Aline, who is pretending to be a vampire, sits down the the hospital cafeteria, orders a salad and proceeds to eat it without anyone questioning her. I know vampires live only in the fantasy world, but I found it odd to think of a vampire, even someone pretending to be a vampire, eating a salad. I found it even weirder that no one in the book questioned her “diet”. It seems like a loose end that the author could easily clear up for the reader.

As a reader, I found myself wanting to yell at the book, “Okay, I get it already!” The author had the ability to give a great description and lead the reader to a conclusion, but then also spelled out what the reader had already understood. An example of this is the last sentence of a character description. The book reads, 'On his left hand was a thick, heavy golden ring; Kessler was married.' The point of the ring description is to show that Kessler is married.

I have to admit, the cliff hanger ending has me awaiting the publication of future Vampire General novels. I have confirmed with the publisher, and author, that there will be more in this series coming out soon. Aline was a likeable character, and I see her becoming stronger and holding her own at Grace General Hospital, even after the transhumans discover that she isn't one of them. My biggest question is, when does she become a vampire?  

Indie Author Victorine Lieske - Not What She Seems

I picked this ebook up at barnesandnoble.com for the unbeatable price of 99 cents. I love browsing through the self-published ebooks looking for those that catch my eye. Sometimes I rely on titles to interest me, and sometimes I actually rely on the cover. I realize that this isn't good practice for picking out a book, but I do it. I have to admit, it has backfired on me more than once. I've learned to carefully read the description of a book before clicking that purchase button, and I've saved a few bucks on books that turned out to be reviewed pretty poorly. This book, as it turns out, was a well researched purchase that I was happy with.

Emily Grant is on the run. She murdered her husband, William, 5 years ago after enduring years of physical abuse. After leaving town with a long time friend, Richard, Emily finds out that she is pregnant with William's baby.

Through a fateful event, Emily meets Steven Ashton, New Yorker and billionaire, who just happens to be interested in her. Steven has escaped the big city and is pretending to be Ethan, your average guy living in rural America. Richard discovers Ethan's true identity and is convinced that Emily can scam him for money. Emily and Richard devise a plan to swindle Steven for 100,000 dollars.

Emily sees a different opportunity, however. She wants to get away from Richard, and Steven is her ticket out. Her plan is to get just enough money to run away without leaving a trail for Richard to follow.

Plans start to unwind as Emily gets to know Steven and spends more time with him. She begins to fall in love with him despite her attempts to block out any feelings. This, however, doesn't stop her from taking his money and running. She is convinced that she is doing what is best for her and her 4 year old son, Connor.

Steven finds Emily just as Richard is also catching up with her. This is where the action beings. After some digging by Steven, Emily ends up facing her past and together they uncover and solve a mystery. Who really killed William?

This book was surprisingly compelling to read. I found myself reading later at night than I intended. I'm a sucker for a love story, danger and a good mystery. This book has all three. Steven Ashton is a perfect gentleman throughout the entire book, and I found myself wondering what I would have done in Emily's shoes. I think I would have made decisions leading me closer to the man I was falling for, especially one who could protect me. I'm a true romantic and I love a damsel in distress.

The author, Victorine Lieske, does an excellent job foreshadowing throughout the book, and I was left guessing who the true killer was. On more than one occasion I wondered if Emily wasn't in fact the killer and simply feigning ignorance about the circumstances surrounding her husband's death. All of this foreshadowing left me feeling inadequately informed, which is exactly what you should feel like in the midst of a mystery.

The most disappointing thing about this book was that the author sometimes carried a scene or conversation on just past the point where it should have ended. Characters would speak with intensity closing a subject, however, the story would continue with a non-character making a joke or with an extra description of what was happening. These things didn't add any information to the story and left the scene's importance feeling diminished.

I found that the ending of the book was weak and wrapped up too quickly. Emily finds out who the killer is, and bam, confession. End of story. I want a little more drama, a little more flash and glitter. I need closure at the end of a book.

After finishing the book there were some loose ends that bothered me. One was that Richard didn't seem to have a motive other than finding Emily after she ran. He was willing to do whatever it took to get her back and keep her safe. This seems like a motive, but I want to know why he wanted her so badly. There is never the feeling that he loves her or even lusts after her. Perhaps he was just crazy, but I would have liked to know his motivation.

Overall, this book was a really decent read. I would recommend it to someone who likes this kind of story, but I don't think its strong enough to break a hard core action or sci-fi fan into a new genre.

Vampires....Fantasy-Lite?

"Ugh, another vampire novel?"  This is the response I got when telling someone about the book that I'm currently reading.  My first reaction was to defend myself and the book that I had chosen out of thousands of other books.  My second thought was better, however.  You could respond this way to any book.  "Ugh, another romance (science fiction, crime thriller, mystery, serial killer) book?"  The list could go on forever.

People write books because they have a story to tell.  Yes, the main character in this book is a vampire, yes, vampires are "teh new hottness" but that is because they work.  People like them.  I chimed in on a discussion in a forum about why people love vampires.  Here is what I had to say:

I think that vampires became popular, so everyone with a story wrote it and it worked for them, so viola, more vampires.

I think readers became so interested in vampires because they are so human-like, that the characters in stories can pretend to be human and interact with the human world without the author having to necessarily drawn in "weird" or "strange" creatures that would require descriptions that may turn some readers off. It would also be difficult to create romance between humans and a non-human like group, so again, vampires work better here as well.

I also think that vampires are a good fantasy story for those of us who aren't usually fantasy novel readers. I admit that I've read a fair share of vampire books. I'm reading one right now, as a matter of fact. Think of vampires as Fantasy-Lite.

If I were to be asked, "Do you like fantasy novels?"  I would reply with a simple no.  I suppose this isn't the truth though.  Vampires are fantasy, but because in novels they tend to live in the human world and act human I just don't seem to classify them with fantasy.  I think they add a dimension of danger to a story that couldn't be incorporated otherwise.  People, including myself, like that danger.

Here is what I don't like in a fantasy novel.  Far away lands where the inhabitants of the world are certainly not human, strange creatures, foreign (not of this world) languages, and descriptions that I am unable to picture because the world exists only the the creator's mind.  I guess you could call those things alternate realities, but that doesn't seem to fully express what I mean.

This is why vampires are great for non-fantasy readers.  They are here, in our world, doing things that we do so that we are able to relate to them.  On the other side, vampires are great for authors because they can turn their vampires into anything that they want.  Some shape change, burn in the sun, have superhuman powers and heightened senses.  Some kill humans with a single bite while other drink just a little, some sustain themselves on fake blood and others on animal blood while still others can buy blood from butcher shops or blood banks.  The list is endless, and new authors are creating new stories and spins constantly.

My philosophy is this:  If you enjoy writing it, then write it.  If you enjoy reading it, the read it.  

eFiction Magazine

This month's eFiction magazine is now officially available on the Kindle store.  I know what you're saying...I don't have a Kindle...well, neither do I.  But I do sport an Android tablet and phone and there is a Kindle app for Android...and iphone, ipad, PC and Mac.  So, if you are sitting in front of a computer reading this, you are now out of excuses for not checking out this magazine.  Click on the link to the right and it will take you to the eFiction page at Amazon.

There is also no need for a special device or app at this point.  You can check out the website here.  Of course, make sure to bookmark the site since an issue is released monthly.  You can also check out their facebook page.

There are a number of great short stories in the magazine each month, and beginning in this month there are book reviews, two of which are written by yours truly.  The reviews have been published on my blog, but they have been touched up and added to, so you haven't actually seen them at their best (I hate admitting that).

eFiction "prints" stories from all types of writers in all stages of their writing ability, so if writing is something that you are into, check out the submit a story section of the website.  If you like writing book reviews, submit a review to the editor (on a side note, he is a really great guy, nothing to be scared of!  I'll admit, I was terrified submitting my first review, and second...third and fourth, but I shouldn't have been).  If you just want to have something available as a collection of quick reads, it honestly doesn't get better than this, you get a ten or so stories each month PLUS reviews on what novels to read (or not read).

I know it sounds like I'm selling, and that isn't like me, but this is something that I have found that is truly worthwhile.  There are a lot of excellent authors out there, and eFiction is giving them a voice, now all we have to do is listen.