Skulls & Bones by Armand Rosamilia

This is a collection of short stories from Armand Rosamilia, he of the Dying Days and (my fav) Miami Spy Games books.

 A brilliant introduction into how this author writes, he has great character development and manages to lead you in and then freak you out during only a few lines of story.

Memorial Site: a tale of loss and how a child, adult and society cope. It’s all very sad but also exceptionally creepy. The ending whilst predictable, there really was only one way to end this, still made me shudder.

               

Vacation’s End: John and Rebecca appear to be on the road trip from Hell. Until Goblin in all his naughty glory turns up. He has murderous intent and is chock full of ideas on how to do it!  Clever writing from AR as I did not see the ending coming.

Stairs to the Ocean: Ray has become obsessed with building his staircase to the ocean much to the horror of his wife Bethany. What and why soon becomes evident during the next thunder storm. A spooky tale with a terrifying ending, very cliff edge! (yes, my attempt at a pun!)

1920 Gallery Card #4:  A twisted tale of revenge and a haunted baseball card. Very believable characters that you can’t help by feel for not matter their part in the story, all appear to be victims. Again AR is a master at character development.

Beastie:  A short, sharp tale of animal revenge. Amusing in its telling AR does well with only a few lines to capture what has been going on to warrant the ending!

Crow Mill Bridge: Another short one but that does not stop the spooky chill, lovely description of a not so lovely monster.

Rainforest of Bones: Deep in the Brazilian jungle a madman is building an army, but from what or who! The equally bonkers reporter is captured and forced to tell the world of his plan, he clearly does a poor job but I was intrigued by his background which is not so humbly told! Fascinating and left on another cliff edge. (I did need climbing rope at the end of this book!)

Latin American Death Cap: The intrepid, globetrotting reporter again, who is becoming more endearing. Mushrooms OMG just mushrooms!! This left me wide eyed… congrats on that one Mr AR.

The Devil and the Cenote: The finale and the reporter with no name makes another brilliant appearance. A sacrifice must be made. I so want more of this story – begging for this to be expanded!

Loved the little exposure bits at the end but always feel these should be at the  start or end of each chapter to lead you in or finish you off!

Amazing chunk of bonus content at the end, in case you are unsure of just how much you are going to love this author.

Skulls & Bones

Exit Wounds: Demon Squad by Tim Marquitz

We are thrust straight back into the story line and TM does an amazing job of intertwining new information with old to bring you back up to speed since the last DS novel (which was far too long ago may I point out).

Frank and his gang are on the run in a strange land, hiding from monsters they are unsure of as Scarlett is in between worlds trying to find her God so she can die and be away from the pain – but others have plans for her.

TM deftly switches between Frank and Scarlett PoVs – managing to bring me, the reader, deep into each very distinct world and personality.

An engrossing read I read this in one long, long sitting as I was pulled too deep into the story to leave it. Emerging 7hrs later very hungry but…. very satisfied. A small tease at the end of this book but lots of questions are answered, but am still longing for the next instalment.

Whilst you may be reading about monsters, demons and gore with lots of splatter and treachery you cannot ignore the amazing word play and seemingly limitless vocabulary that TM has.

Frank “Trigg” Triggaltheron is still an asshole that I love to hate, whatever body he is currently stuffed in. Chatterbox won my heart long ago and still manages, despite the dead rot and maggots, to hum, sing or mumble some great tunes and come out with some fantastic one liners.

Scartlett is a true to her heart heroine, whatever she believes in you cannot fault her for her dedication and she never resorts to using her beauty unlike some of the scheming bitches in this series. Her first person PoV thread that runs throughout the book works perfectly IMO to build the tension and give a different feeling to the book.

I really enjoyed the phoenix element of rebirth to certain critters!

If you have not read the previous 6 books in this amazing series then I suggest you do so, especially as they are on offer currently.

Whilst I still find the first in the series a little “raw” in its writing style you cannot miss the underlying skill of TM and this makes for fascinating reading as you literally see his amazing writing talent grow and shift throughout the series to what book number seven is.

The cover work is always spectacular and draws you in whilst giving a glimpse and guidance as to what Trigg looks like, always in love with Chatterbox I look forward to more artwork with him as the focus (sort of!).  I would really like to see the other characters more deeply portrayed in both cover work and writing, I really want to know some back history now, how DRAC was set up? How Katon etc came to be how they are, some spin off novellas perhaps?

I can’t wait to see where TM is going to take this series next! 

Exit Wounds: Demon Squad

Dystance: Winter's Rising by Mark Tufo

Born and raised in some dire conditions love and friendship still flourish enough to give hope in this new dystopian world that MT has dreamed up.

Born and bred to fight and die in a war that has been ongoing for as long as their clan can remember friends Winter, Cedar & Tallow, are given a life line after a huge discovery and some revolutionary acts.

Winter is the prime hero in this story and she is indulged with two love interests, although I found her confusion, deep feelings and then switchero a little shallow I must remember she is a mere 17yrs old,  MT gives her calm and wisdom beyond her young years. Cedar is thankfully the comedic scene stealer.

Cedar manages to fall in love several times with various kilt wearing gents via her new found love of reading romance, always seems to pop up from behind some rock to over hear a private conversation and generally bringing some humour to a harrowing situation/setting.

Thrown into this seemingly endless and selfish war machine, the trio struggle to survive the onslaught, barely equipped, under nourished and most definitely not trained to fight.

As the various clans in the war spar and try to gain ground or make alliances it is Winter who shines, discovering a unique talent and is shown her true destiny.

But can she live long enough to fulfil it?

I enjoyed the lack of guns and the epic sword fighting scenes.

The treachery, deceit and double crossing is amazing and I can’t wait to get my paws on the next instalment.

Another element to bring the Talbot clan into another universe, that little bugger gets around. Even the epilogue is filled with Talbotisms!

*Spoiler alert*

How I loved reading about Trip again!

Dystance

Savage by Iain Rob Wright

Anna (from Ravage) has escaped with Rene and they are now “safe” on a pier. Their journey from there to here is never fully explained which is a shame as they have both clearly become changed characters and also have a bond between them.

Garfield, is the new enigmatic wanderer who forages for supplies but has found his salvation in Poppy a child with an awful past.

Throw in a few other misfit characters and I wondered how they survived the first few days of the apocalypse let alone a few weeks/months and you have the new community.  Not forgetting the poor “fish man” who comes late to the party and is a very sad moment all around.

On the horizon is the Kirkland ship with Samuel (from Sam) as captain and Damian/Roman (Housemates & The Final Winter) as the reinvented good vs bad character, but he still holds a great love for Harry (Final Winter).

A bit repetitive and the PoVs were a bit off occasionally in my opinion.

Damien seemed to swing between personas with no real moral compass which was really irritating as thought he found himself in Housemates.

Not one of my favourite IRW  books which is a real shame as he is tying up all the loose ends of his characters, even the Sea-Sick novel only makes a very brief, albeit, clever appearance.

I got a bit annoyed at the army break in situation, what was with all the hidden weapons, surely they would have been frisked by trained army men!!

Many of the random/odd characters felt like filler or fodder for me with some very cliché moments.

There are some very sad and dramatic deaths.  The occasional humour moments were really laugh out loud and unexpected.

If IRWs intention was to wrap up this set of characters he sort of did but I felt there is more to this story and really wanted a definitive ending.

All that negative stuff said, it was a gripping read and as always IRW treats you to complex story lines that demand your attention, the gore is plenty and the plot is hard hitting.

Savage

Jennifer Thomas reviews..... Mandy De Geit

In this guest blog the amazing Jennifer Thomas looks at two books by Mandy De Geit, apart from these two great books she has been in multiple anthologies.

She Makes Smile

We have all heard the saying ' Keep your friends close and your enemies closer' but what happens when your friend is an unknown enemy? 

This short story lets you find out the answer to that very question. When the friends in this story spend time together it is more out of respect and caring for one another. 

Even though one has to battle to make people think that she can feel anything at all the other is always there for her with kindness and support, but when things start to go wrong there is no stopping the events that must unfold.

With this being a short it is really hard to leave a review without giving anything away but I can tell you once you start reading it and the details start to unfold you will not be able to put it down.

This only Happens in the Movies

This author does an amazing job with her character development and it allows your mind to see what she was seeing at the time the characters came into her mind for this story. 

Mandy DeGeit is a new author and I look forward to reading her writings as they grow but for just starting out I think her writing is awesome.

Brad Kempt is not a loved man, never has been. He has always been made fun of, laughed at and pushed around. He has finally decided that the best thing for him to do is stick with his cyber world that he has built playing computer games and forget about having any kind of life and he has realized that love will never be in his life. 

But the one thing he never expected to happen was Sara. When the beautiful blonde moves in next door he can no longer control the emotions that flood him. Sara is different, she sees him as a person, she is willing to be his friend.

But how far can this friendship go?

How happy can he truly be?

Great read!! Just enough horror and suspense to keep you turning the page, with emotion that may have you grabbing a tissue.

Draculas by JA Konrath, Paul F. Wilson, Blake Crouch & Jeff Strand

I totally loved the dedication; it was so sweet, yet funny.

This is told in little chunks of story, each one from a different point of view from each individual involved. You can tell the differing author styles through the characters and really lends a great “voice” and out look on each person.

The basic premise is that a Dracula type skull is found, surrounded by legend it is then bought and delivered to a dying millionaire, who (of course!) allows it to bite him….. and so begins the horror in a little backwoods hospital when he is rushed their by his palliative Nurse and researcher/treasure finder.

The varying characters via their different authors approach the monsters in different ways, the humour is as huge as the teeth.

The gore is free flowing, abundant with plenty of blood and bits.  Amongst it all are two very touching love stories; however, they both have issues!

When Benny the Clown starts to make flamingos from intestines I could not stop giggling and trying to explain this to Hubby was not a good moment in my marriage, I think he seriously started to question my sanity. However the various drawings throughout the book helped him see why I found it quite so funny!

This was a fantastic, engaging and grotesque read, some parts made me gag, some cry and some laugh so hard I needed to actually put my kindle down and calm myself.

We, the reader, are then treated to a giant flowing interview between all four authors and how they managed to pull this off.

Then we are given about 50% of bonus materials which is simply staggering each author gives us a full blown novella as follow on.

Finally we are promised many more sequels so I will be on the look out for these.  All of these authors are fantastic to read and I can’t wait to get my mitts on more of their work.

DRACULAS

The Forty-First Wink by James Walley

Poor Marty he is awoken by a bunch of monkeys drumming on his head and stealing his pocket change, or maybe it was just a night on the Tequila! And so starts this trip through Marty’s hangover morning. However, when the cupboard starts to speak to him I knew that something else was a foot!

Awake in his own dream Marty starts his morning off by losing his Mirror Iimage and re-friending his old pirate toy named Timbers by splatting him with a slipper!

With an invite to the Giggletastic Carnival Sideshow Spectacular tucked in hand and a quest to find his lost Mirror Image and a way out of the DreamWorld, Marty and his new found pirate friend go off to catch the bus, as you do! Sounds like they were driving through Croydon for most of it!

As they reach dock, just go with it here, Timbers proudly shows off his pirate ship The Flying Fathom and I was so wrapped up in the mayhem I wanted to be on the deck with Oaf and the motley gang; its unique locomotion just another mad moment exploding from inside JW head.

Finally making it to Stellar Island where Marty spends his (awake) day job dressed as Harvey the Space Beagle, he comes across another random ally and soon the whole gang finds themselves in the Hall of Paranormal Mirrors. It is here that things start to get a little spooky as He is talked about.  

The “He” is a certain Mr Peepers a freakish, demonic clown with a truly skin crawling aura that JW manages to portray even amongst all this daft jolliness.

When dastardly plot twists start to unfold we are treated to a variety of characters, unforgettable for me are the Jamaican, French and German canaries that are in a desperate search for worms and cheese; I do hope they found some and the superhero “Locust” with his spangly lycra leggings and unending history lesson of fascinating facts.

The funniest part of the book for me was the daring ice cream truck escape, complete with choc ice weaponry and pogoing clowns!

As they continue on their hunt/escape/quest Marty and his gang may have found his route “home”. I was pleased to see that JW did not skimp or wuss out on the ending, holding fast to a theme and giving a brilliant ending, whilst leaving it wide open for more fun.

This book was a total riot, I kept finding myself guffawing and snorting at all the odd, random moments and exceptionally clever word play one liners.  I’m pretty sure the image of a whale on a pogo stick will stay with me for awhile. As for the Great Badger Invasion and cheeseburger trees, well, just well!

The mental visuals given are a whirlwind of colours and images, it would be amazing to see what Hollywood CGI could do with this mayhem.

Reading the bio’ on JW I understand that this is to be a serious of books, personally I think it could be extended into a massive series, the imagination and writing skill of JW seems endless is this short (a good two hours!) read is anything to judge him buy.

Fantastic attention to detail in every moment of madness, the writing style is an easy read but also complex as so much is packed into each sentence, paragraph and chapter.

All the characters whether human or critter are fleshed out and have unique personalities. I could not spot a single typo or editing error which is outstanding for a first book, but then The Ragnarok team are amazing.

The Forty First Wink