Review by A.J.Raven on Chronicles of the Marauder

Guest Post: A.J. Raven

‘Chronicles of the Marauder’ by A.G. Moye was a different kind of a story for me. Maybe because I don’t normally read sci-fi, and surely not the ones that involve space and other worlds. However, the first book in the series was surprisingly enjoyable.

The main character is a man named Neil. The interesting thing about him is that he isn’t a ‘all good’ kind of character that some heroes tend to be. He has a past and that hinders people from completely trusting him. There were a lot of characters in the story but the author did a good job giving them their own personalities. I would be lying if I said I remember all the names that showed up.

Another good thing about the book is the way everything has been described. The author takes time describing the spaceship the characters are in as well as other things that have been developed in order to make up for the lack for resources. The rest of the things also pop up into clear view as you continue to read. We get to know about the different alien races that Neil and his crew encounter. It can’t be a story without some sort of character development and that’s exactly what Neil experiences as he helps one of the alien races to stand up and fight.

‘Chronicles of the Marauder’ Book 1 by A.G. Moye gets five out of five stars from me. It creates a rich outer space world for the readers and sets things up for the rest of the books in the series. Fans of sci-fi won’t be disappointed with this one. Give it a read and we’ll talk about it.

Amazon (Kindle/Paperback) Amazon link: http://amazon.com/dp/B00BM5L606

Smashwords: http:smashwords.com/323360

Found this posted on another blog and decided to share it. It is a nice post for my book. For those wishing to see the other reviews on that site go to http://tempestraven.wordpress.com/ They have other posts about other books.

My review of "The Harvest"

Very seldom does a book make me stay up most of the night to reach the ending like this one did. Normally, I only stay up late in writing when the story is really flowing. All I can say right off is "WOW" Anne Ferretti's The Harvest kept me locked into reading most of the night. It took hold of me and I had to even read while eating my dinner. LOL! If I could have given this book six stars, I would have. Great writing and great story for those that love this kind of book. Now for the review-

 A government top-secret program takes an unexpected turn when Aliens us it to come to Earth. Feeding on human organs and their blood, these creatures are unstoppable by human weapons. The author by her writing places you there making you feel their emotions, including their sorrows, hatred, utter confusion on what is going on and despair. I found myself cheering on the small band that is trying to stay alive and stop the killing of their fellow humans while trying to find lost loved ones.

Main Characters are-

Captain Austin Reynolds. U.S. Marines commando commander in search of his wife (Jenni) and his son(Ryan) taken by the aliens. He has the skills to keep the others alive in his group while avoiding falling in love with one of them. Revenge and the search for his family is his driving force. One of his secret weapons was a creature called Eve that saved his life when he was nine. She kept showing him glimpses of the future.

 Lieutenant Madison Capra the tough cop that worked her way up to lieutenant. She doesn’t take crap from anyone but ends up falling in love with Austin even though she knows she has no chance of him returning the love, his family was all that mattered to him. Tough enough to survive on her own until she meets Austin and Luke joining with them to rid the world of this new terror.

Luke, the football quarterback that finds surviving in the new world harder than quarterbacking a team on the field. He depends on Austin to keep him alive and to teach him how to survive.

Zack, the intelligent one that made a fortune when marijuana was legalized in Colorado. Thinking he was no more than a drug dealer, Austin at first has no use for him but soon learns Zack has talents that he kept hidden.

Edward, the tax accountant joins the team after being prisoner of a gang of teenage hoodlums that think they can do anything they want including sacrificing humans so the Aliens would leave them alone.

Eve, the alien creature that kept Austin alive not knowing why he was important to her but would speak to Austin in his head for him to rescue her from captivity by a crazed General. She had one downfall, she existed by living on human blood.

I will highly recommend this book to readers all over the world that likes to get lost in a book that will keep their attention from beginning to the end.

http://www.amazon.com/Harvest-Anne-Ferretti-ebook/dp/B00FEX0IVO/ref=sr_1_20?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1393265481&sr=1-20&keywords=Harvest

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my review- Arousing the Legacy

My review of A.J. Raven's book "Arousing the Legacy" even though it is a few months late, never less here it is.Review of Arousing the Legacy by A.J. Raven

-Five teenagers, three males and two females find themselves involved in a battle with Vampires and Werewolves in this story. I’m not normally reviewing stories of this type but as I read I became engrossed into the story and found it highly entertaining. The story is set in a small town of Colville during summer vacation. The main character, Anya keeps her fears to herself that one of their group was a vampire. She tries all the movie tricks to bring her suspicions to her friends but nothing seems to work.

Anya, the black haired, brown eyed teenager is the main character but shares the spotlight with Susan.

Susan, the blonde haired teenager is Anya’s best friend and hangs with her most of the time.

Carl, the black haired teenager with glasses, Anya suspects is the vampire when evidence shows he changed especially when he tried to bite Susan who was unaware of it at the time.

Eric, the brown haired teenager that is strange to them.

David, the blue eyed light haired teenager that moves into Colville and becomes part of the group.

Tabitha, the strange black haired green eyed girl that befriends Anya in the end. That has all kinds of strange books in her front room.

All in all, it turned out to be an interesting and enjoyable read if you are into this stuff. I can’t wait to read her next book in this series. After you read it, you will wait for the next book to come out like me.  

             Here is the link to this book for your enjoyment!

http://www.amazon.com/Arousing-Legacy-YA-Paranormal-Awakening-ebook/dp/B00GSY1THA/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1393183118
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My review of "In the Beginning" by Jane Dougherty

My review of the book, In the Beginning by Jane Dougherty. Four and half stars was my rating.

It was clear after I read it, this was the prequel to the Green Woman series. That is okay with me even though I haven't read the Dark Citadel yet either. That is the first book in the Green woman series by Jane. In this book, the author sets up the world the characters live in and how they were drawn into the stories. Sort of an induction book yet has enough action to keep you in the story along with emotions that make you keep reading.

Rachel, the main character is of course the woman called to become the new green woman. At first she fought it but soon realized it would mean her death if she stayed where she was.

Deborah, Rachel's daughter has images in her head that she can't understand but enjoys the life she is shown after being separated from her mother.

Jonah, another young character is drawn from his world after his parents die and becomes a member of a dog group where they protect him and teach him to survive out of the enclosed world he lived in.

The book was able to hold my attention and the story was well presented so I gave it four and half stars on my rating system. Since it left me hanging wondering what was going to happen when they all came together or if they did, that stopped me from giving it five full stars. I would recommend this book to readers that love stories like this one. Jane, created a world different from our own and does so with style. You can take a look inside the book at this link:

http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Jane-Dougherty-ebook/dp/B00GIYLCOK/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1392924996&sr=1-1&keywords=In+the+beginning

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Troubles by Ian Miller

my review of Ian Miller's Troubles. I know I have been promising it for awhile and have finally finished reading it, so here goes. I gave it 4 out 5 stars only because a little proofreading would get it five stars. I became hooked on the book and feel Ian presented very believable characters along with a strong scenarios that drew you into the story. 

Troubles is set in the near future where governments are no longer effective and Earth has used up most of the natural resources. Corruption has ran rampant and money is basically worthless. It is where everyone for themselves and life is cheap. The hope of the story is the return to a time when it was basically free to walk down the street and not get mugged or killed. Corporate, police and the rich don't have to worry, they live in the gated communities where they are somewhat safe. 

Henry, the man character of the story finds himself being trained to be a sniper the law and order man of the green zone. He inherits the task of killing anyone that robs, or kills someone else in the green zone. He becomes the judge, jury and executioner but he wants to change that way of life by working to return the green zone and its inhabitants to law and order without the gun.

Susan is the daughter of the man that trained Henry and is the second main character. Some parts of the story is told from her POV. She is just as deadly or more so than Henry but not as quick to kill as she is.

Here is a link to Ian's book that you will find yourself unable to put down! 

http://www.amazon.com/Troubles-Ian-Miller-ebook/dp/B008CT962O/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1392667730&sr=1-1&keywords=Troubles+by+Ian+Miller
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Announcement

My Fantasy book went live yesterday on Amazon. Sorry about those of you with other ereaders, I am locked in on KPD select for ninety days before I can put it on other sites. This is a fantasy story that includes Witches, Vampires, giant spiders, and Medieval times. Follow Sasha after she is cast out of her body left lying in a glass enclosure so her father can view her body everyday until he dies. Here is the link to the story.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IH0QDSS so drop by and view it, I think you will enjoy my first trip out of my usual genre. 

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I'm Confused!

Life with all its twists and turns can make you happy and feel like things are finally going your way or the exact opposite can occur making you feel like things will never go right. Having a loving, understanding wife that is your best friend makes makes each day feel like Valentine's Day. So each of you give that special one a kiss every morning and show them you love them not just on Valentine's Day. I titled this "I'm Confused" because everyday you should act like this is Valentine's Day with the one that means the most in your life. Not saying others are not important but you should take the time each day for that special one. 

On another note, I was suppose to do a review of Ian Miller's "Troubles" today but I haven't had time to finish reading the book yet. There has been so much going on but I will promise to get it finished in a few days. It does my heart good when I see one of my reviews helps someone to decide to purchase a book based on my review. Amazon notifies me when someone does so on the books I reviewed.  Hidden Magic was the latest book I received notification that someone read my review then purchased the book. I like helping out other Indie authors. I believe helping others also helps me in the long run. Since all Indie authors are in this for the long haul. 

Even though I didn't win the MARSocial, Author of the Year contest. I feel the exposure and participation being one of the finalist was good for me even though it took a lot of my time. I made a lot of new friends and contacts. Even though it is over, we still stay in touch and join each other on our various sites on Marsocial like my Lightning Chronicles site at  http://marsocial.com/group/lightningchronicles/  just drop by and say "Hello". You will meet a lot of interesting people there.

If you are running low on reading material on that new ereader you got for Christmas, just drop by my author page and find something good to read at http://amazon.com/author/agmoye or those without a kindle, you can drop by my smashwords author page to get different formats. Like always, all my books are available in paperback at reasonable prices except those published by a traditional publisher,they are priced very high and I am thinking about dropping them from my site so people don't get discouraged by the high prices. You can tell the ebooks published by them, they are priced above $8.00 whereas my other books that are self published are all below $5.00.

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Varied interest.

I guess I am like most readers, I love to read and every once in a while I stray from what I normally read especially when requested to do a review of a book or a review swap. If it is something I normally don't read, I surprise myself by becoming engrossed in a well written story even if it is not subject matter that I read normally. Since I have been sick, I have fallen behind by I am slowly catching up. Right now I am in the middle of reading a book by Ian Miller called "Troubles" and will do a review this week on it. (I hope)

I was hoping to have my final edit back from the editor a week ago but she has been sick, moving and other problems getting it finished and back to me. The book is my novella called "Sasha: a beam of light" I don't think that will happen for another week while my editor recovers. Such is life, I wish her a speedy recovery.

I still have a couple of more books awaiting editing but due to finances, I will have to wait to get them done even if I go to another editor. If any of you follow LinkedIn, you will see a thread by me about writing in the first person instead of the third person I normally write in. My book "IronHeart" is giving me fits trying to write the first time in the first person so I went on there to seek other writer's advice. They have been so helpful that I might go back to it and write a little more instead of working on "Jody's Dilemma" that I am writing in my usual third person that feel the most comfortable doing so. Yesterday, I even wrote a little on my western "Saddle Spur" that I haven't touched in six months or longer. How is your week starting off?

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Angels and Aliens-my review

This was one of the most difficult books I have to review to date because the author mixing well so much true science, the bible and other facts to make it totally real and happening. I had to go to Amazon to get an image of the books so what you see is the cover posted on Amazon. The author great acknowledges the contribution of others to this book. I would give it five stars but in my opinion there was too many flashbacks that interrupted the flow of the story in my mind. So I will give it four stars since I can't give it four and half stars. Now on to the book: 

The main character is a female Cathy and her part in this great adventure to save Earth from a collusion with a star coming through a black hole on collusion course with the planet. Using what is called psychokinetic abilities, for those that have no clue what I am saying, It is simply "Out of the body abilities"

Using factual pictures from various sources, the author puts together a very good story. Quotes from various sources including Einstein and others she bring this story to life. During her psychokinetic wanderings with others, especially Matt, she encounters alien lifeforms along with her efforts to save the world.

Interweaving today's political climate adds even more intrigue to the story with spies, terrorist and various intelligence agencies. Mind control by others look to sabotage her and others attempts at saving the world. 

All in all, this is a very interesting read that will take you to heavens and beyond. I recommend this for those readers that like fact heavily mixed with adventure!

You can get your copy at this link:

 http://www.amazon.com/Angels-Aliens-Chryselle-Brown-ebook/dp/B00E25S308

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Character Interview- Brandi Boudini

Today, I sat down with Brandi and talked to her about her life. You can read all about Brandi's life in detail in the book Brandi's Nightmare. http://amazon.com/dp/B00B50XLFU or on Smashwords at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/312016

My first question was, how long has it been since the nightmare began?

She leaned back in her chair and sighed before speaking. "It has been four long years since the car bombing that killed those I loved and changed my life."

So did you find out who killed your parents?  A tiny tear trickled down her eye as she recalled their deaths. " I finally did but I am not a liberty to say. My biggest question was "Why", that was what I wanted to know."

Did you learn why? She paused not wanting to say more but after a short silence she spoke finally. "It turned out not to be all the reasons I thought."  She again paused before adding. "I thought it was because of my father being jealous of my step father having my mother, and they had testified against him sending him away to prison, or because he was involved  in the CIA."

Your father, actually your step father was a former member of the Mob hiding in a witness protection plan and was involved in the CIA while in the plan, how did that happen? "My father was a forger in the Mob and the CIA put his skills to use for them. Somehow they found out he was hiding under a false name and without the FBI even knowing it, the CIA recruited him."

The FBI agent in charge first broke the story that former mobster had been killed in a car bombing along with his wife. They thought right away the Mob was behind the killing at first but you proved them wrong. 

Brandi sighed again, she looked tired like this was a big ordeal for her. "I thought the same thing for a long time and told my real father that if I ever proved he had anything to do with it, I would kill him with my own hands."

Another tear escaped while she waited on my next question. 

Is that why you took all those martial arts training along with becoming a kick boxer?  Wiping the tear away, she spoke. "I didn't like it that I was forced into a car against my will by two or maybe it was three of my father's bodyguards, then by others, so I decided to do something. Martial arts was a good start. I also learned to fire a weapon for protection."

Why did you give up kick boxing after losing your first professional fight? "I learned to love kick boxing and became very good at it, I thought, but when I didn't even see the blow that knocked me out, I started having second thoughts. My thoughts went to the first fight for my life that I was in during my trip to London, you saw it in all the local papers there. In that fight; I was getting the crap beat out of me. Then I realized while I laid in the hospital after the fight that she had been just toying with me. In desperation, I made a kick that should have not killed her but, she was in the process of finishing me off. When she moved to do so, I got lucky and hit her upside the head, breaking her neck. She died instantly. After I woke up in the hospital from my being knocked out, I realized that it could happen to me like it did that woman in London. I hung up my gloves then and never stepped back into the ring. Instead I concentrated on finishing law school."

 All the while you were going to law school you kept trying to find out who killed your parents and why? Do you wish you had dropped it? "I had a friend in the FBI that more less kept me informed on what was going on. They were no longer investigating the case when the state department stepped in and CIA saying this was not their jurisdiction and the case was closed as far as they were concerned. Especially after their main suspect, my father, was proven to be in the presence of another FBI agent at the time of the bombing and they couldn't prove he had any connection to the bombing even though he was with my parents shortly before they died. That was their only weak connection."

Brandi took a deep breath then added. "I found out from them that my father and maybe my mother was involved in killing a couple and hiding the bodies in a storage unit. Those they killed resembled them. The FBI agent suspected that they killed them and were planning to place them in the car then set off the explosive, but it was set off before they could carry out their plan."

So they were planning to disappear from your life regardless? "Yes, that was the heartbreaking part of all this, I learned. Sometimes, I wish I had just let it drop and leave it to others to find the reasons and the killer or killers."

She stood up signalling the interview was over so I asked her quickly, "Are there any parting words you wish to say?"

"Yes, the good thing about all this was I found family that I never knew existed and have a beautiful smart daughter that I love more than anything. Even though I didn't give birth to her, she is my soul daughter. I have accepted a job in the prosecutor's office in Buffalo, New York. That is where you can find me."

I watched her walk away, her face was the face of a woman no longer the young girl I once knew. She might still be considered pretty by some but her nose had been broken so many times that it had a slight crook to it pointing to the side. All the bruises were gone from her face from the years of fighting but her face no longer had the girlish glow about her.  If any reader has a question they would like to ask Brandi, just comment on this post and I will forward it to her for an answer! 

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Nothing is forever!

I am one of those people that fall into a daily routine very easily. My routine used to be that I would get up about 7 am and go for a mile and half walk down to one of the local bars, not to have alcohol but the owner always has a fresh pot of coffee brewed for the local early risers. I drink a lot of coffee. I return home about 9 am and eat breakfast before texting my sister. We either text back and forth or she would call and we would chat for about an hour. Afterwards, I would blog whatever and check emails before writing whichever book I am working on at the time. Her sudden death disrupted that routine. Ever since returning from the funeral at Christmas time, I have not went for my walks nor do I text anyone in the mornings. My day starts off empty, now!

My sister was constantly saying, she wants to live before she died. Her husband had turned her into a recluse like him staying in the house all the time. She purchased an RV and wanted to come to live with me. I was going to be her driver taking her all around the USA. Also taking her out to make friends, something she lost being a recluse but events that occurred prevented her from doing that. I now understand why some successful people go off the deep end, they are one top for such a short time before their world comes crashing down as the next wonder of the world appears. My advice to everyone is to learn to live before it is all over. That means have fun, laugh everyday and spend less time worrying about tomorrow that might never come. Talk back, I'm Listening!

Social Media flooding?

Do you often hit delete the instant you receive a posting by someone that posts constantly? Without even bothering to see what it is about. Some of us make that mistake by flooding our followers with a constant barrage of posts whether they be tweets or on other sites. By doing so, we risk alienating them from even bothering to read what we wrote or even worse having them to un-follow so they will stop receiving the posts altogether. What do you do to find a happy medium where you get others to read what you write, blog or post other places?

After being in a contest where you had to tweet everyone in it everyday and there were 165 entries at the start. I am sure that I turned off a lot of readers but for every one I lost a gained two so I guess that was not bad. What do you think? During all this time I suffered a personal loss and came down with the flu so I could not even concentrate to read or blog much. All I seemed to have time for was tweeting. Now, I am back to normal and the contest is over so my followers can breath easier and not feel deluged by my tweets. Now I hope they started reading what I actually am tweeting. Do you have a better idea? If so, I would like to hear about it. Talk back, I'm listening!