Reading Fanatic Reviews
Books to Add to Your TBR list... or Not!Hey, ya’ll! I’m VERY behind getting my reviews up on the website! I’ve increased the reading and reviewing, leaving less of my leisure time available to update this website. I’ll do weekly posts with links to my reviews at Amazon; you can also check out my Amazon and Goodreads profiles.
By the way, I’m now a top 50 Amazon.com reviewer (#12 currently) and the top 8 US reviewer of all time on Goodreads (and top 9 in the world)… and the #6 US reviewer and #8 in the world in the past year. Cool stuff!
I hope to make updates to this site soon!
Being Creative by Michael Atavar
Available at Amazon, iBooks, Kobo, Google Play, Thalia, Mondadori, Angus & Robertson, Indigo (Chapters), and Bol.de
Being Creative*
Spurs to Creativity
In this book, the author has 20 tools that creatives can use to inspire creativity. The author states that this works for all manner of creativity, but I can definitely see that it would be particularly beneficial for writers, as most of the exercises do involve some writing. The book is divided into five sections: beginning, processes, how to keep going, methods, and ending. Each of these sections has four tools, and the tools themselves have a couple of exercises as well as insight by the author. It is definitely a book that gets you thinking about creativity and can certainly free your mind to look at the world in new ways. The explanations that go along with the tools give much food for thought about the world and the creative process. I play music and write as my creative outlets, and while some of the tools were familiar to me, others were not, but I could see their usefulness. I look forward to working with these tools now and in the future.
How to Day Trade Penny Stocks by Bill Sykes & Timothy Gibbs
Available at Amazon only
Free with Kindle Unlimited
How to Day Trade Penny Stocks for Beginners*
The Skinny on Day Trading Penny Stocks
I have recently read these authors’ day trading book for beginners, and I felt that it lacked in the information needed for the true beginner. I was wondering if it would be the same for this book. I was delighted to discover that this book is chock-full of information and contains enough of it for the serious beginner to contemplate whether or not to actually start day trading penny stocks as well as the best steps about how to do it. The book begins with the basics and gets more complicated as it goes along, but the authors do so in such a way that the beginner isn’t overwhelmed with the technical details. While there are plenty of industry-specific terms in this book, they are introduced gradually and explained well. The authors give all sorts of practical information, like how to ease your way into penny stock trading and how to avoid being scammed. If you’re thinking of trading penny stocks, I highly recommend this book as it will give you solid information and advice.
Fae Hunter: Semester 2 by Amelia Shaw
Available at Amazon only
Free with Kindle Unlimited
Fae Hunter: Semester 2*
Blurb Slightly Misleading
The blurb of the book makes you think that the bulk of it will take place in the Fae realm, but after a brief visit there, we stay stuck in the human world at the Academy until around the 50% mark. I thought this book was unbalanced in its pacing and action. It felt slow in the beginning and through much of the middle, but then really sped up–and the end was at lightning speed. The book has a little more profanity than I am comfortable with. I thought some sensual scenes, as well as regular ones, had elements that were slightly cringe-worthy. The heroine learned a lot more about herself, the Fae realm, and the Academy, much of which will come as a surprise to the readers of the first book. Not everyone is who or what they seem. The end of the book is a bit shocking, with a nail-biting cliffhanger at the end… so if you’re not a fan of those, be warned. This book cannot be read as a standalone; you do have to understand what went on the previous book to fully grasp what happens in this one. If you like the first book, you will most likely enjoy this one. While this book did have shortcomings, I am curious to see the resolution to the cliffhanger as well as what happens in the heroine’s evolving relationships with Fae princes.
Bell to Pay by Jeremy Waldron
Available at Amazon only
Free with Kindle Unlimited
Bell to Pay*
Mildly Confusing and High “Ick” Factor
This book centers on investigative reporter Samantha (the Bell of the title) and a computer hacker who has turned murderous, Loxley. The story alternates between their viewpoints, hers in the first person and his in the third person. The first chapter is supposed to draw the reader into the villain’s story, but I found it too bogged down in extraneous detail that slowed down the pace of what could have been an exciting scene. I actually think that Chapter One should have been called a prologue, or at least the author should have stated at the top of the chapters who the viewpoint character is. Written like this, it is a little confusing as you jump from character to character, especially at the beginning before you catch on to the idea that viewpoint character switches when you see the change in person (first vs. third). When writing a book in this fashion–especially a thriller–it is good to know this info without having to overthink it so you can just keep reading without going “What?”, “Huh?”, or “Who?”.
This story had a high level of “ick” factor for me. I don’t really want to know about a killer’s sexual arousal during a crime or at any other time while thinking of his deeds or the protagonist. This certainly happened more often than I felt comfortable with. The book actually had a fairly decent amount of action like you hope for in a thriller, but I thought at times the prose was weighed down with too much detail about superfluous actions or inconsequential objects. Also, I am an RN, and I was appalled that the author had a nurse show Samantha a patient’s medical record–a HIPAA violation that could lose the nurse her job, money, and her license. In all, this book didn’t work for me, and I won’t be reading any more of the series.
Narcissistic Mother by Mia Warren
Available at Amazon only
Free with Kindle Unlimited
Narcissistic Mother*
Style Improvements Needed, But Good Info
I recently read this author’s other book on changing your life after narcissistic abuse and was curious to see what her take was on parental narcissism; the other book was more about narcissism within a romantic relationship. The author herself states at the beginning of the book that she herself has a narcissistic mother, and I believe that her background has colored the rest of the book in both positive and negative ways.
The book is structured cleanly, with background definitions and explanations at the start, the effects of narcism, and a section ending on what you can do to heal from parental narcissistic abuse. The author seems to have pulled a lot of her information that isn’t clearly personal from the works of writers in the psychology field. In fact, some lists that I mention later below seem to be directly taken from other authors.
Within the chapters themselves, I think the author should have formatted each section to make it easier to read. Much of the background and explanations are written like a list–like a list of traits of a narcissistic mother or the forms of abuse that the narcissist will use. These are written just as sequential paragraphs that start in a very similar and boring fashion, like “the second sign of _____ is… [new paragraph] The third sign of _____ is…” Some of these lists go on for 10 or more signs, examples, or trades, so this can get tedious. It would have been more readable if the author had listed each sign as a subheading of the section within the chapter.
That said, if you believe you have a narcissistic mother (or father), this book will help you get clarity on precisely what that is, what it has done to you, and what you can do to heal now that you recognize that it is an issue.
King by Daya Daniels
Available at Amazon only
Free with Kindle Unlimited
King*
Not What I Hoped It Would Be
I despise book blurbs that give you no idea what the book is about. The blurb of this book has to be one of the most generic that I’ve read. Yet, I do enjoy historical fiction, so I thought I would give it a try. I find myself disappointed on two counts. I find that the writing style is more like that of a contemporary romance than of historical fiction, with lots of short-phrase paragraphs and sentence fragments. While historical fiction doesn’t need to sound like Shakespeare, I do think it needs to be elevated beyond fragments and have fully formed paragraphs.
The other main issue I have with the book is that while the author did state at the bottom of the book blurb that it does have “strong sexual content,” she wasn’t explicit. As the book involves violent spanking and other forms of power and control during sex, she should have used terms that readers know–like “power exchange” or “marital discipline”–to tip off those who don’t want to read that kind of book. While I don’t mind “strong sexual scenes” or general erotica (which is how this book was categorized at the book review site where I downloaded it)–whether they’re told explicitly or in more vague terms–I do not like books with any form of sadism. If I had known that was a part of this book, I never would have chosen it. If authors are proud that their books have BDSM, name it and claim it in the description; if they wish to hide the gory details, they should use the euphemisms as I described above. Authors should not expect readers to infer anything that isn’t explicitly stated (and I don’t equate erotica with BDSM; erotica may contain elements of it or may not), or they leave themselves open to bad reviews by readers who do not appreciate that kind of writing.
The Time Traveler’s Magic by Anna Applegate
Available at Amazon only
Free with Kindle Unlimited
The Time Traveler's Magic*
Glaring Medical Errors Distracting
While it isn’t relevant to the entire book, I am an RN, and I have to say that I thought the hospital portions of the book were way off, starting with the phone call that Ember received about her mother lapsing into a coma. As an RN, I have had to make those phone calls myself to family members, and I would have never have called a patient’s daughter at work in that circumstance or asked her to come in right away (when there is nothing she can or needs to do). The idea of having a hospital administrator latching onto a family member when she enters the hospital asking for bill payment wouldn’t happen either. There would be no team of doctors entering her mother’s room, trying to figure out what happened with her mother; there would be one hospitalist or intensivist working with her for the day, and perhaps a consultant or two, but they would rarely all be in the room at the same time unless a critical, emergent event is taking place (and even then it wouldn’t be likely). I could go on, but I won’t.
Aside from the above, I felt like the book was an odd mishmash of what are a lot of contemporary characters/themes in independently published books: magic, vampires, shifters, pirates, and time travel. If only one of them were a billionaire, then most of the common tropes in fiction would have been represented! I didn’t think these all necessarily played well together. I also did not like the heroine; she seemed too inept to handle either the present or the past, which made the reading a bit tiresome.
How to Hire an Executor by Anthony S. Park
Available at Amazon only
NOT with Kindle Unlimited
How to Hire an Executor*
Good Read for Heirs or while Estate Planning
I have read the author’s previous book on probate and found that to be a well-organized and insightful work on what can be a very tricky subject. I’m happy to say that this book is as well done as that one. It follows a logical flow, first talking about what precisely an executor is and problems that one can have with an estate if an executor is not up for the job. He then goes onto the meat of the book, first describing what a professional executor does and then going into other details like fees, the hiring process, and what to expect. As in the book for probate, the book is very neatly organized into chapters and topics with examples clearly marked with italics and a bulleted takeaway list at the end of each chapter. The author is an attorney, so there is some bias toward hiring a professional, but he does look at the pitfalls of having each type of executor, personal or professional, as well as the processes involved.
For whatever reason, I have been reading and reviewing a lot of nonfiction in the last week. Most of it, unfortunately, has been so poorly formatted that it is actually hard to read. I’ve read books where even the table of contents was a mess, let alone the rest of the book. So it was a pure delight to open the Kindle version of this book and see a perfectly formatted ebook. The table of contents is well organized and concise, and the chapters are well laid out with subtopic headings and the purposeful formatting I mentioned in the previous paragraph. It really does make a difference for a reader enjoyment when a book is formatted well!
In the last chapter of the book, the author does put forth his own services as a professional executor. He clearly states the type of clients that he works for. Normally, I don’t like it when a book like this ends on a big sales pitch, but I feel like the author actually earned a little space to talk about his business because of the quality of information shared in the bulk of the book. This can be easily skipped over if it doesn’t apply to you. I would definitely recommend this book for anyone who is in the estate planning process or for heirs trying to sort out an estate; this book will help both parties figure out whether a professional executor is the right choice.
Cupcake of the Month by Abigail Sharpe
Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and Angus & Robertson
Cupcake of the Month*
The Best Part of this Book was the Recipe
I read the first book of this series and was ambivalent about it, so I wanted to give the next book of the series a try as I like to give authors a second chance to impress me when they have failed to do so the first time around. Unfortunately, I was not impressed by this book either. I could never quite buy the hero and heroine as a couple. They didn’t really have any chemistry, and the need that they both felt to keep such ultimately silly secrets got in the way of any sparks between them (and also my own enjoyment of the book). When I say silly, I don’t mean funny; rather, I didn’t understand why the characters felt the need for all these secrets. Once I realized what the “cupcake of the month” was meant to signify, I found it to be sexist and more than just a little icky. The best part about this book was the delicious-sounding peach whiskey cupcake recipe in the back. I doubt I will be checking out other books in this series or other books by this author.
Dragon’s Fury by Brian Meeks
Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Kobo, Scribd, 24 Symbols, Mondadori, Angus & Robertson, and Indigo (Chapters)
Dragon's Fury*
Character-based, Campy Epic Fantasy
Is campy epic fantasy a thing? That’s how this book came across to me. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the sequel to The Blues Brothers movie, but this reminded me somewhat of the idea of having “to get the band back together.” It is definitely character driven, and there are a LOT of characters (not always easy to keep track of them all, especially when some have similar names). An old nemesis is supposedly back, dredging up bad memories and opening old wounds as people come together to try to figure out what to do about it. The character vignettes were interesting, but I felt like the action itself was a little boring. It was more about reading about quirky characters and what they got up to as they sorted themselves out rather than a true edge-of-your-seat epic fantasy. By the way, I didn’t think either the title or the cover went along with the book at all; I do like both to reflect what is in the book; they set a tone and expectations, acting as the first gatekeepers and guiding me in deciding if I want to read it. Despite all this, though, I am curious to see where the author will go with this world.
Jamie Brydone-Jack
Reader, Editor, Writer
I’m an avid reader, for both fun and work/business. I enjoy a wide variety of books, including literary fiction, romance, thrillers, cozy mysteries, and fantasy for fiction and history, contemporary issues, philosophy, music, medicine, and cookbooks for nonfiction. I’m a freelance copyeditor who also does beta and alpha reading. I have two websites that are all about romance and mystery. You can also follow my reviews at Amazon, Goodreads, and Bookbub.
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