Howard Lovecraft and The Fozen Kingdom by Bruce Brown

In order to properly review this book and understand the graphic novel I would like to give a brief overlook of Howard Lovecraft.
Bruce Brown -with a twist- has written the childhood story of one of the first great horror writers of the modern age, Howard Lovecraft, aka H.P. Lovecraft. The series focuses on a fictional tale of Howard as a child, growing up in England in 1894.

This particular book opens up on Christmas Eve as Howard goes with his mother to visit his father, who is locked up in a mental ward. When left alone with his father Howard is to told to destroy a book and shortly finds himself holding the book. This book holds the secrets to another world. Howard doesn’t understand the book at first but quickly learns that the book his father had written for him maybe should be destroyed. Will Howard get rid of the book before the book gets rid of him? Through a journey to another world Howard will face danger, and could very well get lost in the great expanse of the universe.

I felt the novel was well laid out with an easy to follow plot; though it was slightly on the simple it did have a couple of twists. I feel the book would be perfect for a diverse age of readers, anyone ages 10 and up. One thing I didn’t really care for was the vocabulary, the use of basic terms like ‘gobble’ multiple times within a couple of pages got a bit boring, but that is a rather minor detail.

With quick easy to read text and mysterious pictures the graphic novel was very well laid out. The chapter breaks were good distances apart and I feel the 73 pages of the book were a proper size for a quick read before bed.

Though it has some simpler qualities, plot and vocabulary, for younger readers The Howard Lovecraft series is good book for a comic fan.

B

The Unraveling of Wentwater by C.S. Lakin

With a twist on the familiar tales of sleeping beauty and rumpelstillskin combined C.S. Lakin tells the story of Teralyn, a girl of great beauty and skill with music, who was foretold as a babe to cause the destruction of Wentwater before her eighteenth birthday. For her own survival she was hidden away in the mountains surrounding the superstitious village, but on a visit to the little town below she meets a man that will change her life, but will also cause the destruction of the village.

The story of Wentwater features Teralyn, a gifted girl who goes through great lengths to save the town of Wentwater. I feel that her character started out very well shaped and strong, developed throughout, and carried through till the end; showing Mrs. Lakins skill. The young man Former is Teralyn’s lover and I honestly feel he should have been better shaped, we learn of his character and such, but for his roll in the story, which is a large roll, he was underdeveloped. Honestly, at first review of the book I was surprised to see how much the plot rotated around him. The amount of time given to him is minimal, causing him to be slightly on the “flat” side. The person I connected to the most was Justyn, which is odd but true. Justyn is an educated young man from the Heights—a college like set up in the mountains near Wentwater—who has left his superstitious family in the village to learn all that he can about the physical world. I understood his views and, though I didn’t agree with his reactions to his circumstances, to a degree sympathize with him.
The book’s pace started out nicely, though it dragged slightly through the middle “The Unraveling of Wentwater” ended with a quicker pace for the reader. As far as originality goes for a fairy tale I thought the book was well done. There were enough things that remind one of the fairy tales we have grown up on, the Sleeping Beauty beginning and the Rumpelstillskin like ending for example, but it with the unique characters and other features Lakin had me wondering and interested from cover to cover. The story felt homey, and familiar but with twists that kept it fresh; the book is perfect for a relaxing read before bed.
In Mrs. Lakin’s past books she had written great plots that tie up all the lose ends and I was slightly disappointed to find this story didn’t. I was left with a couple of questions, menial questions granted, but the lack of understanding of bits of the story took away from the overall enjoyment of “The Unraveling of Wentwater”.

C.S. Lakin has once again written a wonderful story that isn’t a fast pace action novel but more of a wondering walk of enjoyment for a person to relax to. Though not my favorite in “The Gates of Heaven Series”, “The Unraveling of Wentwater” still is a wonderful book showing great writing style.

B

Vigilante by Robin Parrish

The squeeze of a trigger followed by a silenced bullet and Nolan Gray, a famous war hero, is dead.
The world is falling apart; National debate is a joke, criminals are running rampant holding a large part of the job force, war lingers over the world and the United States Government is about to collapse.
President Thornton Hastings is trying his best to bring law and order back to America by forcing budget cuts, and creating a new anti-crime team (Organized Crime Intelligence agency-OCI) he hopes can save the country he once fought for.
When strange bill-boards start appearing across the country promising “a better way”, people wonder if “a better way” is truly possible. Hope is sparked on the streets in New York as a mysterious man rises up to take down the unlawful and protect the innocent. Can a single man change the dark streets of New York and trigger a hope for the nation?

The first sentence of Vigilante had me interested in this book, by the time I finished chapter one I knew this book was going to be good.

Vigilante reminded me of Batman and Spiderman mixed together. Creating a grapple swinging, bullet proof, almost superhuman, vigilante. The mission, solve the world’s problems and make people themselves better. With only his military training, an ex-commander, a tech genius kid, and enough drive to go miles Nolan Gray is ready for a challenge.
Robin Parrish created an excellent action story that kept the pace up through out. We are quickly introduced to Nolan and learn of his ambitions, skills and what drives him.
Sadly this is one thing that needed work. Nolan is a great hero, just his back up team was just that; back up and under developed. We did learn some basic character history to better understand personalities but more insight would have helped explain Alison, Arjay and Commander’s loyalty. Same with the villain, though he was a good strong villain, the fact his motives were based off of sickly blind rage kept him flat and predictable.

The plot was intense and built upon itself nicely. Since this is an action book a lot of the time I felt like it would make a good movie. There are a lot of good fight scenes, races, tense moments, time-ticking bombs, fires, and drama for a full-length film.
I am not going to give out potential spoilers but the ending of this book will leave you with mixed feelings. I also feel it was rushed, like Parrish needed to quickly finish the book so he just ended it and gave a five page epilogue to hastily tie up some lose ends.
Robin Parrish wrote a good book with a fast plot, decent twists, and a strong hero that I could see popping up in the movie theater. Sadly the use of Batman and Spiderman classic techniques hurt my respect for the creativity of the book. While the ending had me wondering if that was really the end.

B
Thank you Bethany House for the review copy. 

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling

Disclaimer- Christians that don't agree with magic should not read this book. For me personally I read the series thinking of the magic as something that made the series unique. I also know that some people practice magic, I do not support magic in the real world. Harry and his friend also did some things that I feel Christians shouldn't support, lying, breaking rules, plotting revenge, and stealing are some of the common things that did happened in the book that I don't agree with.

Harry isn't normal, he lives under the stairs at his Aunt and Uncles house, where he is treated more like a slave then a nephew. When Harry receives his first birthday letter he learns that his father and mother were wizards! And that he can train to be a wizard too! He can leave his miserable life with his Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon and Cousin Dudley!
When he arrives at “Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry” Harry is automatically the popular kid and quickly makes enemies because of it. On top of making new friends, fending off enemies, and schoolwork, Harry finds himself wrapped up in a mystery that includes the evilest of dark wizards who killed his parents when he was a baby. There is evil a foot, unbreakable banks are being robbed, mirrors are not telling the truth, and no one knows who will help bring He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named back from the near dead.

After hearing so much about this series I finally just picked them up. I was pleasantly surprised. The first book in the series is rather light hearted with an excellent plot that had many twists, red herrings and humor.

Harry is well developed and was easy to attach too, I took instant pity on him as I saw what he had to grow up with for “family”.  Harry quickly showed that even with his unusual history he just wants to be a normal boy. Sadly no one will let him be that, so he must compensate and just be ‘the’ Harry Potter famous for something he can’t even remember.
Harry couldn’t have asked for a better pair of sidekicks in his adventure. Ron and Hermione really brightened up the story with Hermione’s know-it-all attitude and Ron’s care free relaxed bearing.
I also loved the supporting characters. Neville I think was my favorite minor character, I feel the same as he does about studies. The teachers were all fitting for the typical teacher style, making it easy for young student readers to relate to the mysterious Hogwarts School.
Lastly I enjoyed the way J.K. Rowling had a minor enemy that was front and foremost in the story’s plot and a major villain that is plotting destruction in the background. This made the book have a good ending with the minor villain but kept the series going with questions for the next books.

For the world I thought Rowling could have added more. The only real description of Hogwarts is basically, “A castle looming on a mountain surrounded by a black lake.” Rarely will I complain about a book not having enough description but I feel a little extra would have helped. Later in the series the description adds up so you can almost see Hogwarts but for a first book it was weak.

Now I had heard about the game Quidditch before, but had no clue about what it was. After learning about it the Quidditch matches they quickly became some of my favorite scenes. The game Quidditch it gave me a feeling of a real school, with popular jocks and fans.

So minus the facts about Harry's poor moral choices the book is easily worth a B. If Harry had kept strong moral character the book would have been a A+ easily.

B

Beyond the Dead Forest by Steve Groll

Partners looking for adventure, that is what Kat and Carter’s relationship is like. When a mysterious forest shows up that only they can see, they know a real adventure just might have arrived. On one of their excursions to learn what lies within the woods they meet a man who will send them on a mission that might kill them.  But if they survive the challenges the Dead Forest has for them they will end up with some of the greatest treasures known to man.

I really enjoyed this book. The lessons that “Beyond the Dead Forest” contains I feel makes it a must have on every private or public school library shelf in America and beyond.

Kat and Carter are wonderfully created. They are two 12 year olds that have grown up together in their neighborhood. Both love adventure and both have family problems; together they help each other to deal with it. Kat’s father left the family and her mother is trying to be both a mother and a father to Kat. Carter’s parents fight a lot and seem to forget their son in the other room when they are mad.
The kids attitudes through the  book suited their age. They had real fears and made common mistakes like any 12 year old would. The difference with Kat and Carter is that they learned from their mistakes.   

The plot of the book didn’t dilly-dally with background information, which I love. There where flashbacks and conversations that helped fill-in any missing details about the partners pasts. The adventure couldn’t have started any quicker, I was promptly pulled into the troubles the two children had to deal with. Thinking, “What would I have done?” through the challenges really made this book something I could bring into my day to day life. “Beyond the Dead Forest” taught basic lessons like the people rule, running with the herd and loving your enemy. 
Now the middle of the book did drag and I had to make myself read it at times but the ending picked it up, making the book overall a decent pace.

I like this book it reminds me of a cross between “Phantom Tollbooth” and “Pilgrim’s Progress”. I highly recommend it for people of all ages. It is humorous, creepy, entertaining, insightful and so much more.

Also, I had the privilege to receive the book on CD and I just wanted to add that the reader did a wonderful job bringing the book to life. 

B

Ale Boy's Feast by Jeffrey Overstreet

Thank you Waterbook Publisher for giving me this book to review.
They’re on the move. Tabor Jan is leading his people through the dangerous forest of Fraughtenwood. Trying to lead them the way their king would have, if he wasn’t missing.
Mean while Queen Thesera and her children Partayn, and Cyndere are discussing ways they might be able to help the beastmen trapped in the curse. 
Ale Boy is lost in the core of Cent Regus, vainly searching for survivors in the slaughter the beastmen made of his people. And the Seers haven’t given up yet, new creatures and dangers are hiding waiting for their bidding. The Expanse as they know it is turning against them, and no one knows how to stop it.

For me this book was long, and I’ll take some of the blame for not liking it. Due to a busy life I was forced to spread the book out over 3 weeks. With the time lapses I had between reading I am sure I missed and forgot quite a few important details that would have helped me enjoy the book more.

With that said I’ll go into character development. Jeffrey Overstreet did a great job showing us everyone’s true colors in this book. Toward the end I felt like I didn’t know a lot of the people in the book, that is how much they changed. I am still debating whether I like this or not. People I trusted seemed to turn, while people I felt should have been dangerous became heroes.  Ale boy, and a few others remained steady, people to cling to as the Expanse changed.

As I said above the plot was slow, I was hoping for a big climaxed ending and was disappointed to see it curve to its height of thrill. The last 50 pages of this book were the best in the series though, as far as action goes.
Another thing that I didn’t fully understand, are a few of the character wrap-ups. Some people it seems Overstreet just had to finish up, so he came up with the easiest way to do that, (Spoiler) killing them off. (End of Spoiler)  Now I don’t mind that too much but I got the feeling the series wasn’t as well planed as it could have been. Almost like the ending was rushed.
Now this book is sold to a Christian Market and I think that some people might not see the Christian teachings in the series. They are very evident toward the end but you have a long wait to see the lessons the series teaches.
I guess it was a good ending and had a lot of interesting twists in the last 50 pages. Just with some threads left untied I have a bitter-sweet after taste of this book. Sweet because it was a series worth reading, bitter because the ending wasn’t all I had hoped it to be.

 B

 Final Notice: this is the last book in the series. Even though the author has an overview in the beginning of this book you really must read the entire series to understand this world and the people. Read, Auralia’s Colors, Cyndere’s Midnight and Raven’s Ladder before you read Ale Boy’s Feast. I made the mistake of trying to read the series out of order and was forced to go back to read everything else before I finished this book. 

Solitary by Travis Thrasher

~ Not for readers under 13, this book is a little scary and covers mature topics. ~

Chris is 16, his parents have just divorced and his mother is moving him from Chicago to her hometown, Solitary. In this hick of a town Chris falls for the high school beauty, Jocelyn. Problem is it seems no one wants him to date her and evil forces are at work to stop them.

This book is in first person, I felt was a good and a bad thing.
Good because we got to know Chris a lot better than we would have in third person. We also learned a lot about his mother, and her drinking problem; which I feel is a real problem that needs to be talked about, not covered up.
The bad thing is a lot of the book was about his feelings and thoughts for Jocelyn. Now you might be thinking, "Why is that bad?".  I didn't care for it, it reminded me of a sappy love story. I would have liked more action and less, "I can't stop thinking about her." - chapter 5. As well as other comments like it throughout the book. If this was meant to be a romance book then that is fine, just I thought the book was suppose to be mystery/horror/thriller.
All in all Chris and his mother, Jocelyn, Poe, Rachel, Newt, Gus and all the characters were well developed as needed. Travis did a great job there.

The plot had me confused through most of the book. The climax was a little slow for me, though the last 30 pages are great with an epic twist. For me most of the plot was based on high school dating and some mystery/cult on the side. Thrasher did throw in some scenes that I don't think were needed other than to speed up the story and show creepiness. The visit to Aunt Alice was one, loved that chapter, and a few of Chris’s self-missions were thrown in to build suspense and entertain us.

Solitary is set in South Carolina, not my favorite state to begin with, and for sure not my favorite after reading this book. The natural “creepy” that Thrasher gave that town still has me awed.

The messages that the book taught were good, one is that Chris and Jocelyn should/could be just good friends. I liked that. He also touched on inner beauty over outer beauty. Plus the comments about hope were good, something I could think about after reading the book. 

I liked the book, it was humorous, insightful and had a great final twist. Travis also has given me new insight about short chapters; two chapters are only 3 words. Solitary maybe a little more romance than I like, but I am still looking forward to reading more by Thrasher.

B

Invasion by J.S. Lewis

First off I would like to thank Cson for giving me this book to review.

Colt is the California poster boy; he surfs, plays guitar, video gamer, he's the popular kid at school. When his family goes to D.C. for vacation Colt has the chance to participate in a military training center "fun" day for students, invitation only. When he gets home his life quickly changes when a terrible accident happens, making him move in with his grandpa. Which leads to him getting thrown into a world of aliens, adventure, mind control and danger.

Okay, I'll admit it. Normally I'm not that big into Sci-Fi. I have not seen a full show of Star Trek, haven't read a single Superman comic, I don't watch the sky for UFOs or anything like that. Therefore, when I got this book I was ready to learn of new worlds like I never have.

The first 50 or so pages were wonderful, fresh plot, action, mystery, discovery, humor, it was all there. Then the plot took a turn I didn't care for. Invasion turned into a copy of multiple plots I've read, just with Sci-Fi twists.

Colt as a character wasn't as well developed as I would have liked. We did get into his personal life and feelings but I never felt like I knew him. The same with Lily, Dani, and Oz, I loved the characters just never connected with them.
Now I'll give Jon points, he came up with a creative way so that we knew more than Colt through part of the book. I thought it was fun knowing more than the main character. He came up with some cool creatures and worlds that I can't wait to visit in the next book. Lewis also had the teen humor down to a tea, making the book tons of fun to read. He had short chapters so I felt like I was making a lot of progress while I read and I love the fact that Lewis used his book to teach that girls and guys can just be friends, not boyfriend/girlfriend.

This book was realistic enough to have me wishing I could go to the store and get the Phantom Flyer and the Agents of Chaos comic book, yet Sci-Fi enough to make it a great "get-a-way" book to relax with. I look forward to the next book in the series; Jon S. Lewis just needs to work on plot and character development for me to love his series.

B