Review Tales
Trusted Reviews and Author Features Since 2016
To Trust a Wolf – by Danielle Hardgrave (Book Review #74)
Helen is an archivist working in a museum and she is in charge of an annual event where she collects money from donors to keep the museum running. Her job is very important to her. A historical discovery regarding a Viking hoard attracts a lot of people, and that causes an increase in her responsibilities. Unknown to her, there is something hidden in the artifacts which put her life, museum, and everyone else in danger.
Here comes Rune Helsen, a dashing man to her rescue with a secret of his own. His agenda is not pure or clear until the end. However, he does seem to grab the heart of our heroine, and as she falls for him, Rune manages to reveal this secret to Helen while explaining the reason why many are interested in the Viking hoard.
She tags along with him on this discovery, and they are now on a mission, which will continue as Book 2.
I was astonished to see how a short story could contain this much novel content. I was very impressed by how this Author did not waste any time in including backstory and managed to build enough character to continue with her next book.
The paragraphs, literary standard and dialogues were very well put together and easy to understand. There was no fluffing of pages, and I was pleased with the mannerism of the entire plot including the twist in the story.
The tale does contain sexual content and supernatural creatures such as Vikings, Vampires, and Werewolves. This paranormal romance did also remind me of the Twilight Saga.
I recommend this book to anyone that is interested in a short story filled with paranormal creatures.
Written by Jeyran Main
This review was kindly requested by the Author, Danielle Hardgrave.
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Stars Above by Marissa Meyer (Book Review #8)
Summary
“The enchantment continues…
The universe of the Lunar Chronicles holds stories—and secrets—that are wondrous, vicious, and romantic. How did Cinder first arrive in New Beijing? How did the brooding soldier Wolf transform from young man to killer? When did Princess Winter and the palace guard Jacin realize their destinies?” – by Marissa Meyer
Review
As essentials, it is safe to say that Marissa Meyers has made a good attempt to cover anything left from the Lunar Chronicles. The purpose of this book and the description provided matches its content. Each story is unique to its previous published chapter.
The Literary and standards of which the book is written are very well similar to Ms. Meyer’s previous published works. I believe that the author’s purpose was to cover and to add to her previously published work, by offering Stars Above as a sweet addition to her tales.
Since the book is divided into sections, it is only fair to review it individually. However, before I even begin, I would like to say that compared to other Authors and their book series; where the Author decides to add a book, in the end, to cover loose ends, Marissa Meyer did not waste time providing just a filler to her fans. She respected the need for explaining a few things that were questionable and gave us a good wrap up on all things that were unsaid.
The Keeper demonstrates a comprehensive and detailed story of why Scarlet has been behaving the way she has. Her mannerism and personality is no longer a secret, and I began to like her more, due to this now known vital information. This passage also explains a lot about Michelle Benoit. She has a love story that surprised me and was delightfully plotted by Marissa Meyer. You also comprehend and understand why Scarlet loves her grandma so much.
Glitches, touches base on the relationship Cinder has with Peony and her few early days with the new family. It does not hold much content worth getting excited or to discover and unfortunately lacks any substantial plot or substance.
The Queen’s Army is a delightful addition to the Lunar Chronicles. We hardly know much about Wolf throughout his journey. How he started and who his parents were was very interestingly plotted. All the fight scenes were well written with structure, and the whole theme of this story was satisfactory to complete its tale.
Carswell’s guide to being lucky starts with his family. You do feel sorry for Carswell and understand why he is such a bad boy. Girls are very attracted to him for obvious reasons and without too much detail, we just get to read a little more about how he struggles to make ends meet. Many pages were dedicated to this passage but unfortunately lacked any significant content.
After Sunshine Passes By is a beautiful and great story of Cress, her father and how she was chosen and taken away from her family. You get to read about her favourite poem and where it originates. It really gives you a sweet impression on Cress. The theme and story were appealing and worth reading.
The Princess and the guard also receive a substantial portion of Stars Above. Her relationship with Jacin is not the original story, but the relationship between Winter and her parents brings us to the conclusion of why she receives the scar she does. I believe that this was done in a logical explanation as it leads us to an understanding that Winter is not some crazy weak girl that does not know much about her surroundings. She is very smart and powerful. I wished that this personality was portrayed more in Marissa Meyer’s Winter book. However, I am happy that at least she covers this section up nicely.
The Little Android receives another dominant part of Stars Above and unfortunately, did not appeal as much to me. The impression you get is more confused at times, and then you do ask yourself what the point of the whole section is. I personally did not understand much of its content or comprehend the theme of what the Author was trying to achieve.
Something Old, Something New is probably the best part of Stars Above. I absolutely loved it and found it incredibly exciting and was smiling the whole time while I was reading it. The reason behind this is that you get to see everyone together for the last time. The time is after the war now, and everyone is happily situated together. Marissa Meyer attempts to show us a detailed explanation on what has happened after the war is won. A beautifully written wedding between two people that have had a hard past takes place to finalize our Lunar Chronicle Series.
A pleasant ending to a very sweet tale.
Jeyran Main
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Weight Loss for Vegans by Kayla Keyes (Book Review #26)
Lose weight and learn how to self-love in ten days using Kayla’s structured diet plan.
Kayla Keyes begins to tell us the reasons why we even start to consider making changes in our life. She believes that there are events that trigger our feelings, for example, separation, moving away from home or a new job. Her intentions are not for us to just lose some weight but to also “lose the baggage” she claims, “we are carrying around (externally & internally).”
The whole book is for vegans; that is a no-brainer considering the name of the book clearly states that however if you are not a vegan, you can still benefit from this book and still lose some weight. You just won’t be consuming any meat.
The program provides a shopping list, some aspirational quotes to motivate you and to help you succeed. Kayla provides recipes and instructions with every meal. This book is more like a detox plan. You can also continue with the diet plan after ten days if you wish.
The problem I had with the book was that there are no references to how many people have tried this or how successful her regime plan is. There are also no personal information or any story to suggest if she has struggled with weight loss (a reason to write such a book). There is also nothing stating how she even came up with such a diet plan in the book.
What I did like about the book was that she asks you to reward yourself with things that you like such as a spa treatment or a nail appointment, a haircut rather than indulging in fast food. I also liked the fact that she encourages exercise with the program and consistently makes sure that you know losing weight comes with you being happy with yourself. It does not matter what size or shape you wish to be. As long as you are comfortable in your own skin, then it is good enough for everyone else. There are four steps provided by the Author to assist you with improvement on your current level of self-love. I believe that is useful for anyone in any condition even if they don’t want to lose weight.
I recommend this book to anyone that wishes to lose weight and also learn a little about self-love.
Written by Jeyran Main
I was given this book by the Author & J.D. Jung, UnderratedReads for a review.
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Acute Renal Failure -12 Year Anniversary off Dialysis – Never give up! by James Okun
November 30, 2016, celebrated the thirteenth year since I suddenly went into acute renal failure from an unknown cause and almost died. Even as a physician, I was completely shocked to learn that from one day to the next my kidneys had shut down and I was in kidney, heart and respiratory failures (See my book The History of New Innovations in Modern Medicine Chapter 1).
It turns out that I was in pretty good company as many others develop renal failure each year (More than 661,000 Americans have kidney failure with 468,000 on dialysis http://www.kidney.org) including some very famous people who eventually died from it.
Some well know victims of Kidney failure include: Greta Garbo, Jean Harlow, Chiang Kai-shek, Julia Child, Alfred Hitchcock, Marlene Dietrich, Howard Hughes and General Douglas MacArthur (www.ranker.com).
Normally, your kidneys filter out toxins from the blood, reabsorb important nutrients and preserve water balance. When they fail, toxins build up in the blood, edema develops and if not treated the patient can die.
Some causative factors of acute renal failure include the effects of certain toxins and poisons, heavy metals and medications, acute blood loss and dehydration, sepsis or mechanical blockage (such as from an enlarged prostate See Chap 3 The History of…). Kidney failure can also result from the long-term effects of conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure and auto immune diseases such as lupus.
If you know anyone undergoing dialysis, please support them to the utmost. It is absolutely lifesaving, and without it, the patient will die, but it is also very difficult to tolerate.
When I was on dialysis for six weeks in 2003/2004, I would get severe muscle spasms during the three to four hours undergoing treatment. One time I had an episode of acute diarrhea and lay on the bed mortified in the Charity Hospital dialysis unit (since closed after Katrina) as a nurse’s aide had to clean up the mess. I was pretty hopeless.
After outpatient treatments, I would come home so weak I had to crawl to the front door. I remember one day lying in bed and weeping because I truly believed I would never be free again to travel or exercise or do anything without being tethered to a dialysis machine. I prayed to God to help me and to send me a miracle.
The miracle came after the dialysis shunt clotted in my neck and it was taken out. I was prepped for a permanent shunt in my arm. When the preop labs came back, they were normal. No one could believe it. My prayers had been answered. Gratitude, faith, and belief had overcome cynicism, anger, and doubt. So, as bad as things may seem, be proportionate and never give up!
James D. Okun, MD is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Duke University and of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. He is the co-author of The History of New Innovations in Modern Medicine and of Erasing Scars: Herpes and Healing.
The Selection Series by Kiera Cass – Eadlyn’s Tale (Book Review #7)
“Eadlyn Helena Margarete Schreave de Koskinen is the main protagonist in the novels The Heir and The Crown and the prize of her own Selection. She is the daughter of King Maxon Schreave and Queen America Schreave, making her princess of Illéa. In The Crown, she becomes the first Queen of Illéa. She has a twin brother, named Ahren, who is seven minutes younger than her, and two other younger brothers, Kaden and Osten.”- by Kiera Cass
Review
The Selection series is a 5-novel book about two girls named America & Eadlyn written by Kiera Cass.
I managed to read all five of the books in July and found them very easy to understand and to follow.
“The Heir” and “The Crown” were written in 2015 and 2016. Without giving too much away for people that have not yet read the book, I would like to give a small description of the whole thing before I comment on my feelings about it.
Eadlyn is America’s daughter and next in line to take the crown. The caste system and the political situation of the country have changed. Eadlyn has been trained and taught everything she needs to know from birth and has a whole new set of problems and dramas to comprehend.
Eadlyn was fortunate with having considerate parents and the fact that her father trained her so well for the time that she was to become queen made the whole story very appealing. Although a few times you could see her rage, stubbornness or snappiness, you knew where they came from, and she managed to stay calm, firm and very independent throughout the whole tale.
The story contained the same witty skill of which, is Kiera’s writing and kept its beautiful visual scenes of cute dresses. It was nice to see how a country is ruled, and there was much more depth into the political side of things where we hardly saw any of that when Maxon was the prince.
One of the main negative parts of the story, in my opinion, was that majority of the book was continuously commenting on how she hated being trained, hated the workload, disliked becoming queen and hated having to choose a husband from the selection. Overnight, suddenly she becomes so eager to have the crown that she asks to become queen before her parents are even dead or want to give it all up! This change of heart is not only sudden, but the odd part was that she thought that she was able to do it all by herself too. Only afterward did she start assembling different people for different positions and all the training clicked into place. Otherwise, from the beginning and right up until the story ends, Eadlyn did not want any of it.
Another concern was that the men chosen for the selection seemed to be doing nothing but hanging around until she would spend time with them. They were so bored that they would come up with ideas to even entertain themselves or play games outside. When Maxon was going through the selection, all the girls were going through daily training and etiquette lessons. They were taught about the country, the demands and were studying, training for the day that they may become queen. I did not understand why anything of this sort was happening for Eadlyn’s selection. The intensity of things was much harsher and more disciplined around Maxon’s time.
Eadlyn remained clueless about love and what it meant to be in love right until the last couple of chapters. When she eventually found what it meant, it was so sudden, cheap and not much content revolved around it. It almost looked as if it was more infatuation rather than true love. The term “soul mate” was used in so many ways yet she only had two meetings with the one she liked discussing very simple things such as “what does your father do?” I believe if Kiera had brought up this love sooner in the book and gradually increased it, then it would have been a much more in depth, believable love. Subsequently, Eadlyn’s reasoning for breaking all the selection rules would then not look so much out of her character. She was always on regulation and guidelines, which was nice.
I still enjoyed reading the two books and was happy with the flow of everything. It was nice to see and learn more about the king and queen, Miss Marlee and of course Aspen. Kiera did an excellent job in connecting everyone together and finishing it all with a happy ending. I just wished that the ending did not look so rushed.
Written by Jeyran Main
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The Clerk by Matt Cowper (Book Review #62)
The Clerk is a story about Thomas. It begins with his birthday and as he turns 40 things in his life could not be more pleasant. Thomas works in a grocery store and lives on the North Carolina Coast. He consumes good food and has almost no friends. Nothing really rattles his boat. Thomas has a friend with benefits, and she satisfies his other needs. He feels that there is nothing wrong with the way he lives. Thomas is content as can be with his life.
Thomas’ father, on the other hand, is not so pleased with him. Frank Copeland, does not approve of Thomas’s life. Thomas has no career, no steady girl, and very few friends. Frank believes that Thomas’ fate may end up like his grandfather’s with suicide. Thomas’ family is dysfunctional, and his sister is on the verge of a divorce. Everyone around him constantly brings their troubles to him, and he just ignores them away with one line comments or by just walking away. He can’t fix their problems so why bother helping?
While the story may seem very plain and ordinary to the eyes of some, it has a few captivating messages within. If you look closer and deeper, you actually can identify a family that is suffering from depression, self-doubt, bonding and mental issues. A history of suicide that runs from father to son and commitment issues that Thomas personally suffers are all alarming segments of this fictional story.
Thomas views women by not just looking at their face or eyes. When he looks, it is mostly sexual. The way he describes the women he meets all begin with their hair colour, the way her lips tease and then the figure and explicitly carries on until you really feel that you have read enough. He has a problem with staying or wanting to commit to any woman. The women around him also do not seem to dig deeper into his issues to figure out what he really is lacking. His simple life is not acceptable to his family and to the people he knows.
There is no exciting plot or a twisted scene where you need to look out for. It is a straightforward book with no grammatical or structural issues, which I was impressed with. The pace of the story meshes very well with the theme of the book, and the literary standard was impressive.
I would really like a sequel to this book. I want to see how this back-story works out for Thomas.
I recommend this book to Fiction readers and look forward to reading more from this Author.
Written by Jeyran Main
This review was kindly requested by the Author, Matt Cowper.
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The Remnants by W.P. Osborn (Book Review #64)
This review is written for Online book club “I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars.”
This is a love story written based on a true tale going back to pre-World War, where Danny Pulbrook and Rose Quayle meet the most unlikely way and promise to stay faithful to each other until Danny comes back from the war. Danny has enlisted in the army, and Rose works for the upper English society where etiquette and social interactions restrict her from being free. The author describes thrilling war scenes with his skillful writing. He also touches your heart with emotional turmoil and speaks of the impact war has on everyone during those hard times. The pace of the story with the characters personalities was written in a beautiful way. It kind of reminds you of ‘Pearl Harbour’ and the love connection alongside the loss of lives and the practicality of everything that we suffer and appreciate with war.
The romance between the two was not a sudden infatuation and thankfully was believable. Gentle touches of love and care emphasized the actual form and the reality of what feelings are. Separation and difficulties of staying in touch were also addressed delicately into this love tale. There are plenty historical references to the war and stories of many countries capturing moments of loss, tragedy, and hardship in every angle possible.
The remnants consist of many side stories alongside the main plot which adds content and backstory. However, if eliminated, would have still been just as good. Therefore, I was not sure of the reason for wanting to add more dialogue and text to a story that is already well written. If there is a sequel to this book, then that may have been the reason for it. Otherwise, I felt it was unnecessary.
I recommend this book to anyone that likes to read a nice historical romance.
Written Jeyran Main
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