Kevin’s reviews of other people’s books
No Romance Allowed is subtitled “a sweet and light-hearted romantic series.” I was not even aware that “clean & wholesome romance” was a category for amazon. This certainly isn’t my usual genre, but the book was recommended to me and this is my honest review. But, I’ll try to approach it from the perspective … More No Romance Allowed, by Kana Wu [Review]
Detective Sergeant Nathaniel Brannick is a tortured soul with an unusual supernatural power: the ability to touch a dead body and see the last moments of the person’s life. A nice trick for a crime-solving detective, particularly in late 19th Century London, where modern forensics techniques are not an option. Brannick’s life at the start … More Consumed, by Justin Alcala [Review]
Ruth Ware’s wildly popular novel is an exercise in internal anxiety reminiscent of Edgar Allan Poe – just much longer. The first-person narrator, Laura (“Lo”) Blacklock, is a journalist for a British travel magazine. She scores a plush assignment of sailing on the maiden voyage of a small luxury cruise ship/yacht owned by a rich … More The Woman in Cabin 10, by Ruth Ware [Review]
This is the most unique vampire story I’ve ever read or seen on the screen. Without spoiling anything, the principle vampire characters, Chase and Hunter Bardock, are part of a vampire family living in an underground compound in Queens. Both have traits that make them unusual among their kind, and that bring them closer to … More The Human Cure, by Tracy Auerbach [Review]
The baseline plot of The Cerberus Affair is immediately attention-getting and quickly draws the reader into the mystery. Catherine, a beautiful but sexless single mother of an adopted son, is a former journalist. At the same time her son is getting ready to go off to university, Catherine’s world is rocked by the news of … More The Cerberus Affair, by Charlotte Valentine [review]
This book of short stories is like the fever dream of a drug-addicted surrealist artist. The Parasite story (the first) has some elements of sci-fi, but lacks characters, a coherent story, an obstacle to be overcome or a goal to be achieved, and fails to even try to explain how an insect-like parasitic organism is … More The Parasite from Proto Space (and other stories), by Brett Petersen [Review]
I read book #1 in the Jelvia series (Holding out for a Hero) and now have jumped to the most recent installment, Spider. T.E. Kessler has created a unique world in which Humans live alongside a super-human race of Jelvia. This installment delves into the common fetishes and motivations of both races through the eyes … More Spider: Jelvia: Not Human (#3), by T. E. Kessler [Review]
Adriane Brown’s novel, The Café on Dream Street, is a tortured tale of an immigrant from el Salvador, Felipe Sanchez, and his family, trying to make a life in a suburb of New York called Oakmont. The writer’s political bent is clear from the outset. The local cops are redneck anti-immigrant thugs, who terrorize the … More The Café on Dream Street, by Adriane Brown [Review]
Parabellum begins with the grisly scene after a mass shooting at a Chicago beach. The rest of the book describes – in great detail – the lives of four characters identified only as “the student,” “the ex-athlete,” “the veteran,” and “the programmer.” The absence of names for these central characters is disconcerting, but we get … More Parabellum, by Greg Hickey [Review]
Dr. Ree Ryland is not your typical mystery-action hero. She is a professor of Engineering, specializing in auto crash safety systems. But she has a black belt, and a Glock in her purse. Just in case. She is also clever, a stickler for details, and attractive. A very intriguing combination. In this story, Ree starts … More Calculated Deception, by K.T. Lee [review]
