Review of The Tiger Warrior by David Gibbons

  Genre: Action/ Adventure

Synopsis: Jack Howard, an archaeologist and deep sea diver, discovers amazing history below the water and on land. He is sort of a modern-day Indiana Jones. This is the third book following Jack Howard and in this adventure he discovers an ancient elephant graveyard below the ocean, which leads him to Egypt, India, and Afghanistan following an ancient legend about Roman soldiers sold as slaves and working their way down the Silk Road to become mercenaries. Along the way, Jack is looking for his  great great grandfather, who got caught up in pursuit of legendary gems that could grant immortality and disappeared in the early 1900's.  Come to find out both of these ancient stories have a common root.  On the trail of discovery, they find themselves unknowingly pitted against an evil baddie intent on becoming immortal and taking over the world.

Good:

David Gibbons is a trained archaeologist. There is so much fact (or at least, supposition based on evidence throughout history) in this book that it is really thrilling to read. His details of the Koya people of India, and the Pashtun people of Afghanistan, were fascinating to read. The basis of the adventure, the possibility of Roman soldiers being captured as slaves, and moving into Asia along the Silk road and then becoming mercenaries; is very realistic and the way that he paints the possible events is beautiful and elegant. This is the kind of fiction I really love, where you learn as you read. Where the lessons are so seamlessly and elegantly woven into the story as to make you feel as if you are a part of it.

I have always been fascinated by books like this! Indiana Jones, Dirk Pitt, Robert Langdon. Each is a wonderful opportunity to learn new and exciting things in the frame of a good story.  I am excited to add Jack Howard to my list of awesome characters to follow!

Bad: 

The evil baddie sort of felt like a prop piece. One scene we see into his warped reality, then the rest of the time his henchmen are there to add unnecessary pressure to the search and discovery. For me, Howard's family allure, not to mention the amazing finds he was uncovering, were enough to keep me drawn in. Even the ancient Chinese group sworn to protect the jewels was enough. I'm a bit tired of an overarching villian trying to take over the world.

Ugly: 

There were a surprising number of grammatical errors in this book, considering it was published by Bantam books, one of the "Big Six" publishing houses. I loved the author's note at the end, showing what was real, what was supposition based on historical findings, and what was pure fiction for entertainment. But there was no author's biography. I had to search the web to determine his credentials and learn more about him as a writer.

Overall, I love the character. I love the fascinating details that the author is able to contribute, and the way the author excites in me my life long passion of learning about other cultures and history. I am definitely looking forward to reading more Jack Howard novels.

Don't forget to vote on the cover you like best for Angel's Dance, and write your thoughts in the comments section below that post. I'll be configuring all the input this weekend and coming up with the final cover! Check out Charlene Wilson's covers that she created and tell me if you like one of these better. Thanks for the input!

As always,
Keep Reading!

Come Vote on the Cover for Angel's Dance, A Psychic Thriller

Hello Lovelies! Would love your opinion on the cover for Angel's Dance, the sequel to Elements of a Broken Mind. It releases November 25th and we have some fun stuff that will be going on for the month of November! But first, here is the back cover blurb:

Psychic Clear Angel hasn't seen or heard from her one-time lover Detective Grant Anderson since their first case wrapped up six months ago, and that is perfectly fine with her! But when he shows up on her porch in the rain and in tears, she cannot hold her ground.  No matter how she feels about Grant and her “gift”, she can’t ignore the visions already pouring in.

Grant knows that he is no good for Clear, and has respected the distance she has kept. But when his daughter goes missing and the Chicago police have no leads, he turns to Clear and her unique abilities.

This next adventure puts Grant and Clear in close quarters as they find themselves once again fighting their feelings for one another.  Thrust into the dark underworld of performance art, they strive to track down a ballerina who keeps taunting Clear in her visions.  As they delve deeper into one studio, the grisly visions that haunt Clear may be more than she can handle. Can Clear hold it together to help find Grant’s daughter before it is too late? 

Get the exciting sequel to Elements of a Broken Mind and find out what happens with Grant and Clear as they find themselves once again fighting dreams and  passion.  Angel’s Dance releases on November 25^th, 2013 in paperback and e-book.  E-ARCs are available for review. (If you have a blog and would be interested in participating in a blog hop for November, just drop me a line!)

Now that you have an idea what the story is about, here are the three covers to choose from:

Cover 1

Cover 2

Cover 3

So which one do you like best and why? Is there anything you would change about the one you like best? 

Let me know in the comments below!

Thanks so much for your input and until next time,

Keep Writing! 

Third Book in The Castleton Series, End of Time, Releases Today

Hello my Lovelies!

I am so excited that the third book in Mike Dunbar's Castleton Series releases today! It is such a fantastic read! End of Time is my favorite book so far. I think part of this is because of the detail Mike goes into about making bows and arrows, when the boys go back in time to learn about the English Longbow. I've always had a thing for bows and arrows. (Long before the Katniss craze that has gripped our nation!)
Another aspect of the book that I really appreciated is the development and discovery with the alien beings. More tough moral lessons arise in this story, which also thrillingly throws us into the future! My boys are so eager to read this one, that they have actually put off the next book in the Lost Hero series by Rick Roirdan to read this instead.

In the distant future, technology has disappeared and few humans remain. This remnant lives a simple, peaceful existence; until an unexpected invader arrives. Yellow in color, shaped like a cross between a knight in armor and a football player--- these beings liquefy all the people they find. The villagers call them Dandelions, because they are yellow in color and just popped up out of nowhere. Charlie Newcomb escapes these monsters and travels back seven generations to find the daring innovative time crew described in his ancestor's diary.

Freshly returned from studying the Battle of Agincourt for a UNH professor Mike Castleton, Patrick Weaver and Nick Pope witnessed the power of the English long bow. With this simple weapon, a handful of English archers had destroyed an army of French knights. The CT9225's crew answers Charlie's desperate plea for help. With their friends Allie Tymoshenko, Jen Canfield and Loren Smith they return with Charlie to lead the few unarmed humans into battle with the Dandelion army, and perhaps witness the end of time.


It is available in E-book from the on-line retailer of your choice, or through Smashwords
Paperbacks are available through Createspace or you can order from your local bookstore.
If you haven't started reading this series, you really should. There are eight books in total, and the author is releasing a new book every three months. I cannot wait for the next book, coming out in December!

Have you read any of the Castleton Series yet? What do you think? Let us know in the comments below!

Review: The Art of Sales Management: Lessons Learned on the Fly by Michael Delaware

                                                         
 Genre: Non-fiction, sales

Synopsis: The author has compiled tips and lessons learned from his years as a sales manager, and his experience running his own business. There is a nice combination of text-book information and real-world application. The author covers such topics as how to handle your sales people (with chapter headings like "Playing Sales as a Game, Sales Meetings with Results, Signals from the Bench, and Reaching for the Monkey in the Drawer) as well as managing sales work (with chapter headings such as Bonus Systems, The Man Behind the Curtain, Remembering the Ground Game, and Long Range planning)

The Good

I have worked a lot of my career in sales (retail and restaurant while in college, book sales now) and there was very little in this book that did not resonate with truth. (Except the idea that cash bonuses aren't nearly as effective as rewards bonuses. I know a lot of my colleagues from back in the day would disagree, so that is probably just me!) The author uses clever pop culture references that most of us can relate to, and when he uses sports metaphors he does such a good job of explaining the relation that I actually learned a lot about baseball while learning about sales management!

For each tip he gives, he sites real-world experiences he has personally had that apply to the principle he is promoting. This book took me nearly three months to read, because there was so much information crammed into the short 208 pages, and I was trying to figure out how to apply many of the lessons to my current situation. A great and educational read.

The Bad

This book took me three months to read. I suppose that is not really a bad thing, if your goal is to become a better sales manager, but if you are working in sales and trying to formulate a system to make this book work, I suggest you read through the whole thing, rather than implementing step by step. Keep your copy to refer back to when implementing. I am a one-book-at-a-time type reader, so this put all of my other books for review WAY behind. Fortunately, I devour fiction, so I'll get caught up quick enough.

The Ugly

This book would have benefited from a good editor. Not only were there copious amounts of grammar errors, and spelling errors,  but the organization fell way off towards the end. That is one thing that is soooooo important in non-fiction, especially self-help type books. Without excellent organization, the book just does not work. Fortunately, most of the book was extremely well-organized. Unfortunately, that made the end feel like the author/ publisher said "You've got some great material, but we need the book to be at least XX pages, so we need more content from you." Nope, bad call there.

Overall, I really appreciated this book. The tips are great and the examples are engaging. I found myself sharing a lot of the tips with a friend who is currently in sales management and he was excited to come back and tell me how he had employed them and how they had worked! Great material, not-so-great delivery of all of the material. I am definitely hanging on to this gem to refer to as needed. Yeah, it is good enough for that!!

Final Post for Elements Blog Hop, one last goodie!!

Hello everyone, and thank you so much for participating in the Elements of a Broken Mind Blog Hop this month! It was a wonderful success, with lots of wonderful interviews, reviews, and fun!

The rafflecopter was a wonderful success, and our three winners are Chris Allen, Justin Schiavone and Rose Wallin. But this was the most successful Rafflecopter I have ever held, with 76 entries! As a special thank you to each of you who entered, followed along on our blog hop, or at least tried; I have a special gift for each of you!

For this week, you can order the paperback of Elements of a Broken Mind through Createspace and using this code CAUMHNJK, you will get $5.00 off the book price! So instead of $11.99, it will only be $6.99! What a great deal!

If you prefer to read from your e-reader, then fear not, we have a special offer for you too. Again, for this week only, if you go and buy the book on Smashwords, and enter this code: ZS57N you will get the book 1/2 off. That is right, for only $2.00 It is available in pretty much any e-reader format that you could need.

Thank you again for participating in this wonderful and fun blog hop! Hope you enjoy the fun goodies and I look forward to seeing you for my next one!

Until next time,
Keep Reading!

Review: Eat by Lee Newman

Genre: Horror/ Short                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Synopsis:  Eat is a short story about a young college girl who gets kidnapped, knocked unconscious, and wakes up in a cell with another girl where an ominous voice orders them to "Eat". The author cleverly leaves it open as to what exactly they are eating.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Eat is a short story, and generally I am not a huge fan of short stories. It is surprisingly hard to get a short story right. For me, a short story should be an independent piece that leaves me as fulfilled at the end as reading a novel. Lee pulled this off quite nicely. 

The Good

This short story gave me the heebie jeebies! The opening scene actually takes place at the college I went to, and I had more than one night walking out of the library feeling that same anxiety. The author is pretty impressive writing this from a female perspective! I don't know, do guys have the same kind of creepy anxiety walking about at night? 

The Bad

And this is probably just me because others seemed to love this, but there was a very Alfred Hitchcock feel to the first part and then a very Saw-esque feel to the second part of the story.  I love Alfred Hitchcock, not a huge fan of Saw. It felt kind of disjointed, but it worked. 

The Ugly

Seriously, how could you end it that way, Lee?!?!?!? The "book" was too short and I got absolutely no closure.... which of course left me jumping at shadows for the next several nights. Oh, wait... I guess that was sort of the point! 

I love Lee's Dollar Dreadfuls (yeah, there are a whole series of shorts just as creepy as Eat!) but I prefer reading whole books, and this short story stuff just teases me! I hope Lee adapts some of these into full-length novels (ooh, or maybe combines some of them into one whole book.... creepy!!!) Stephen King has kind of fallen off with his scare factor, and I think we just found his predecessor. So, if you happen to see this humble review, write us a full-length creep fest Lee. I have been sleeping too soundly of late ;)

If you want to check out Lee's Dollar Dreadfuls, see his Smashwords page here:  https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/poormanpress

To purchase your own copy of Eat on Amazon, see the right side of the blog!

Don't forget to enter the raffle copter for the chance to win a free psychic eye pendent, also up on the right. 

Until next time, 

Keep Reading!

Review: Promises of Love and Good Behavior by Roderick Craig Low

Don't forget to keep an eye out on all the fun blog hop stops for Elements of a Broken Mind! In the mean time, here is one of the Book Reviews that you missed while I was swamped!


Genre: Drama.. Existential Drama, if we can make that a category.

Synopsis: A man reflects, along with his wife and with his lover, on the affair that ruined their marriage. James fell madly in love with Jude, for her wild "Northern way". Jude found James tolerable, but he was willing to give her the stability she craved, and agreed to an open marriage just as all their friends were having. Her sexual appetites met, Jude was happy.

But the one time James decides to take advantage of their open marriage, he falls madly in love with a young employee of his company, working in Czechoslovakia. He tells of how he planned to leave his wife to be with the lovely Anezka, and why it did not work out.

An interesting and twisted tale told in an elegant and surreal manner, reflecting the age-old drama of infidelity in a new and different light.

The Good

Generally, I am not a fan of drama's, especially those that involve infidelity. Blame my dad, and the misery he put my mom through, but I am never sympathetic for those who are involved in the affair! And yet, in this book I am very sympathetic for James. Caught in a marriage where his wife seems to look down on him for his sentimentalist behaviors, and forces him into an "open marriage" to satiate her own sexual desires. But the one affair he has in this open marriage, he is unable to separate the deed with his feelings.

And the unique and artistically elegant manner in which the background of the story plays out left me curious, enticed, and aesthetically pleased enough to bypass the mundane topic matter. (Yeah, yeah, I know, what is wrong with me that I cannot enjoy most fiction that takes place in our modern day and age?!)

Characters are on a stage and a chessboard, and the format left me wondering if there wasn't another story in there to be revealed at the end. Alas, I cannot say more, lest I give something away.

The Bad

The part that entertained me the most (the creative backdrop in which the author tells the story) is a little off-putting for those expecting a traditional drama... which this book is pitched as, for all intents and purposes. 

And (this is probably just me, but) There is not a significant difference in many ways between Anezka and Jude, save about 15 years.  She seems to laugh at James, because he is so sentimental. (though a bit more kindly than his wife, but she hasn't been with him as long, either!) His fascination with her seems just as... hmmm... shallow, for lack of a better word. it is all about her beauty.

The Ugly

Perhaps this says more about me, but the beautiful backdrop to which the story is told *Spoiler alert* is nothing more than that. I wanted to see that become some sort of sci-fi, or near-death aspect, but it was never explained. Also, though I appreciate the author's painting each character in ways in which the reader interprets (and has the ability to interpret) all of them as "just human" neither good, nor bad. Showing how each played their part in the affair, in the unwise choices that were made. And it is for these aspects that I generally don't like reading dramas.

Overall: I probably won't read this book again, but the author managed to take a drama and paint it in such a manner that picky old me actually was drawn forward. The last drama I read was a Piccoult novel and took me almost two weeks. This one I devoured in a matter of three days. The author has a dystopian novel that I am really looking forward to reading in the very near future!

If you want to try out this interesting and entertaining novel, you can buy it directly from the link on the right of this page!

Until next time,

Keep Reading!